Color-tunable single-fluorophore supramolecular system with assembly-encoded emission

  • Qian Wang
  • , Qi Zhang
  • , Qi Wei Zhang
  • , Xin Li
  • , Cai Xin Zhao
  • , Tian Yi Xu
  • , Da Hui Qu*
  • , He Tian
  • *Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

256 Scopus citations

Abstract

Regulating the fluorescent properties of organic small molecules in a controlled and dynamic manner has been a fundamental research goal. Although several strategies have been exploited, realizing multi-color molecular emission from a single fluorophore remains challenging. Herein, we demonstrate an emissive system by combining pyrene fluorophore and acylhydrazone units, which can generate multi-color switchable fluorescent emissions at different assembled states. Two kinds of supramolecular tools, amphiphilic self-assembly and γ-cyclodextrin mediated host-guest recognition, are used to manipulate the intermolecular aromatic stacking distances, resulting in the tunable fluorescent emission ranging from blue to yellow, including a pure white-light emission. Moreover, an external chemical signal, amylase, is introduced to control the assembly states of the system on a time scale, generating a distinct dynamic emission system. The dynamic properties of this multi-color fluorescent system can be also enabled in a hydrogel network, exhibiting a promising potential for intelligent fluorescent materials.

Original languageEnglish
Article number158
JournalNature Communications
Volume11
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Dec 2020

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