Distorted phthalocyanines via click-chemistry: Photoacoustic, photothermal, and surface-enhanced resonance Raman studies: Dedication: Lawrence Barton of the University of Missouri at St. Louis who encouraged an artist to expand his horizons

Distortion of nominally planar phthalocyanine macrocycles affects the excited state dynamics in that most of the excited state energy decays via internal conversion. A click-type annulation reaction on a perfluorophthalocyanine platform appending a 7-member ring to the β positions on one or more of the isoindoles distorts the macrocycle and modulates solubility. The distorted derivative enables photoacoustic imaging, photothermal effects, and strong surface-enhanced resonance Raman signals.