Innentitelbild: Dithienoazepine‐Based Near‐Infrared Dyes: Janus‐Faced Effects of a Thiophene‐Fused Structure on Antiaromatic Azepines (Angew. Chem. 49/2023)

A design strategy toward near‐infrared (NIR) dyes based on utilization of an antiaromatic azepine is reported by Masahito Murai, Takahiro Enoki, and Shigehiro Yamaguchi in their Research Article (e202311445). While benzo‐fused azepines take bent conformations, which undergo large structural relaxation to planar conformations in the excited state, thieno‐fused congeners with electron‐accepting groups at both termini adopt flat conformations even in the ground state, giving rise to NIR‐emissions that exceed 850 nm. Cover art: Dr. Issey Takahashi at ITbM, Nagoya University.