Solvent-Adaptive Behavior of Oligospirobifluorenes at the Surface of Quartz Crystal Microbalances-A Conformational Process

Oligospirobifluorenes represent promising building blocks for the generation of microporous sensor materials based on their restricted flexibility. The contact with specific solvents leads to a change of the three-dimensional spirobifluorene structure. The single fluorene moieties unfold to an open structure with an increased volume due to intermolecular interactions with the solvent, detectable by NMR spectroscopy. The induced microporosity was further investigated by affinity comparisons of aromatic analytes with high fundamental frequency quartz crystal microbalances.