To investigate the various biological effects of nitric oxide (NO), controllable NO donors would be useful. We previously reported photoinduced NO release from 6-nitrobenzo[a]pyrene (6-nitroBaP), and based on this finding, we developed 4-substituted-2,6-dimethylnitrobenzenes, which released NO upon photoirradiation. Here we report a novel 2,6-dimethylnitrobenzene derivative as an improved NO donor, working with longer wavelength photoirradiation employing two-photon excitation (TPE) technique. For TPE, we designed a compound with electron acceptor-donor-acceptor structure, a well known structure as effectively excited by TPE, which is bearing bis(dimethoxyphenyl)butadiyne moiety as an electron donor and 2,6-dimethylnitrobenzene moiety as an electron acceptor. The synthesized compound is found to release NO by single photon excitation process, and to be decomposed via TPE process.
