## 3 Results and Discussion
### Synthesis and Structural Characterization of Benztriimidazole Materials
The purified product was collected as a clear solution with blue/purple photoluminescence and the solvent was removed by evaporation to yield the pure compound 2,5,8-tris(4-_tert_-butyl-phenyl)-1,4,7-triphenyl-4,7-dihydro-1\(H\)-benzo[1,2-\(d\):3,4-\(d^{\prime}\):5,6-\(d^{\prime\prime}\)]triimidazole as a white solid product (1.45 g, 1.65 mmol, 33% yield). \({}^{1}\)H NMR (400 MHz, CDCl\({}_{3}\), 8): 7.66-7.60 (m, 2H), 7.58-7.51 (m, 3H), 7.35 (d, \(J\) = 8.8 Hz, 2H), 7.19 (d, \(J\) = 8.8 Hz, 2H), 1.25 (s, 9H). \({}^{13}\)C (CDCl\({}_{3}\), 8): 151.29, 148.55, 138.42, 128.89, 128.46, 127.87, 127.02, 126.00, 124.92, 34.60, 31.22. Synthesis of 2,5,8-tris(4-cyanophenyl)-1,4,7-triphenyl-4,7-dihydro-1\(H\)-benzo[1,2-\(d\):3,4-\(d^{\prime}\):5,6-\(d^{\prime\prime}\)]triimidazole (Tris CN). \(N^{1}\),\(N^{3}\),\(N^{5}\)-triphenylbenzene-1,2,3,4,5,6-hexaamine (2.0 g, 5 mmol) and 4-cyanobenzyl chloride (2.6 g, 16 mmol) were dissolved in anhydrous \(N\)-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (30 mL). The resulting mixture was stirred at room temperature for one hour. The reaction mixture was refluxed for 16 h and then, after cooling to room temperature, was precipitated in 500 mL of water and filtered to isolate the yellow-brown precipitate as a crude product. The crude product was dissolved in a minimum amount of dichloromethane and then loaded onto a silica gel column for chromatography using dichloromethane as an eluent. The purified product was separated from a brown impurity and collected as a clear solution with bright blue photoluminescence. The solvent was removed by evaporation and the pure compound of 2,5,8-tris(4-cyanophenyl)-1,4,7-triphenyl-4,7-dihydro-1\(H\)-benzo[1,2-\(d\):3,4-\(d^{\prime}\):5,6-\(d^{\prime\prime}\)]triimidazole was obtained as a white solid (1.13 g, 1.55 mmol, 31% yield). \({}^{1}\)H NMR (400 MHz, CDCl\({}_{3}\), 8): 7.62-7.54 (m, 3H), 7.52-7.44 (m, 2H). \({}^{13}\)C (CDCl\({}_{3}\), 8): 146.85, 137.43, 134.51, 131.86, 129.47, 128.96, 128.42, 127.47, 127.13, 118.57, 111.85. Synthesis of 2,5,8-tris(4-methoxyphenyl)-1,4,7-triphenyl-4,7-dihydro-1\(H\)-benzo[1,2-\(d\):3,4-\(d^{\prime}\):5,6-\(d^{\prime\prime}\)]triimidazole (Tris ONe). \(N^{1}\),\(N^{3}\),\(N^{5}\)-triphenylbenzene-1,2,3,4,5,6-hexaamine (2.0 g, 5 mmol) and 4-methoxy benzoyl chloride (2.72 g, 16 mmol) were dissolved in anhydrous \(N\)-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (30 mL). The resulting mixture was stirred at room temperature for one hour. The reaction mixture was refluxed for 16 h and then, after cooling to room temperature, was precipitated in 500 mL of water and filtered to isolate the brown precipitate as a crude product. The brown solid was dissolved in dichloromethane and filtered through a plug of silica gel to remove the brown impurity. The resulting light yellow solution was dried by evaporation and the resulting yellow solid was purified using silica gel column chromatography with an eluent of 20% ethyl acetate, 80% hexane. The product was collected as a clear solution with purple photoluminescence. The solvent was removed by evaporation to leave the pure compound 2,5,8-tris(4-methoxyphenyl)-1,4,7-triphenyl-4,7-dihydro-1\(H\)-benzo[1,2-\(d\):3,4-\(d^{\prime}\):5,6-\(d^{\prime\prime}\)]triimidazole as a white solid (1.15 g, 1.55 mmol, 31% yield). \({}^{1}\)H NMR (400 MHz, CDCl\({}_{3}\), 8): 7.61-7.58 (m, 2H), 7.57-7.50 (m, 3H), 7.38-7.33 (m, 2H), 6.73-6.69 (m, 2H), 3.75 (s, 3H). \({}^{13}\)C (CDCl\({}_{3}\), 8): 159.69, 148.57, 138.43, 130.35, 128.89, 128.41, 126.88, 125.73, 123.44, 113.43, 55.19. Synthesis of 2,5,8-tris(2-fluoro-4-cyanophenyl)-1,4,7-triphenyl-4,7-dihydro-1\(H\)-benzo[1,2-\(d\):3,4-\(d^{\prime}\):5,6-\(d^{\prime\prime}\)]triimidazole (Tris CN\({}_{2}\)F). N\({}^{1}\),\(N^{3}\),\(N^{5}\)-triphenylbenzene-1,2,3,4,5,6-hexaamine (2.0 g, 5 mmol) and 2-fluoro-4-cyanobenzoyl chloride (2.94 g, 16 mmol) were dissolved in anhydrous \(N\)-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (30 mL). The resulting mixture was stirred at room temperature for one hour.