Proton controlled intramolecular photoinduced electron transfer (PET) in podand linked squaraine–aniline dyads

Proton controlled intramolecular PET from an aniline moiety to a squaraine chromophore, attached to podand chains is reported, which to our knowledge is the first example where a squaraine dye is involved as an electron acceptor in an intramolecular PET process, and has implication in the design of PET based sensors.