Design, synthesis and evaluation of push-pull N,N′-diphenyl-dihydrodibenzo[a,c]phenazines are reported. Consistent with theoretical predictions, donors and acceptors attached to the bent mechanophore are shown to shift absorption maxima to either red or blue, depending on their positioning in the chromophore. Redshifted excitation of push-pull fluorophores is reflected in redshifted emission of both bent and planar excited states. The intensity ratios of the dual emission in more and less polar solvents imply that excited-state (ES) planarization decelerates with increasing fluorophore macrodipole, presumably due to attraction between the wings of closed papillons. ES planarization of highly polarisable papillons is not observed in lipid bilayer membranes. All push-pull papillon amphiphiles excel with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) from bent ES as micelles in water and mechanosensitivity in viscous solvents. They are not solvatochromic and only weakly fluorescent (QY < 4%).

Bent N,N′�diphenyl�dihydrodibenzo[a,c]phenazine amphiphiles are introduced as mechanosensitive membrane probes that operate by an unprecedented mechanism, namely, unbending in the excited state as opposed to the previously reported untwisting in the ground and twisting in the excited state. Their dual emission from bent or “closed� and planarized or “open� excited states is shown to discriminate between micelles in water and monomers in solid�ordered (S_o), liquid�disordered (L_d) and bulk membranes. The dual�emission spectra cover enough of the visible range to produce vesicles that emit white light with ratiometrically encoded information. Strategies to improve the bent mechanophores with expanded π systems and auxochromes are reported, and compatibility with imaging of membrane domains in giant unilamellar vesicles by two�photon excitation fluorescence (TPEF) microscopy is demonstrated.