Aggregate (Jun 2024)

Circularly polarized luminescence from a common alkoxy pillar[5]arene and its co‐aggregates with π‐conjugated rods

  • Kenichi Kato,
  • Ryo Iwano,
  • Shun Tokuda,
  • Kiichi Yasuzawa,
  • Masayuki Gon,
  • Shunsuke Ohtani,
  • Shuhei Furukawa,
  • Kazuo Tanaka,
  • Tomoki Ogoshi

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/agt2.482
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 5, no. 3
pp. n/a – n/a

Abstract

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Abstract Cylinder‐shaped macrocycles composed of π‐panels have attracted special attention as one of the best platforms for the development of organic molecule‐based chiroptical materials. Pillar[n]arenes are a class of macrocycles with the advantage of easy preparation but have not been extensively investigated from the perspective of luminescent molecules. However, common alkoxy pillar[n]arenes are fluorescent in non‐haloalkane solvents, showing potential to be used for molecule‐based chiroptical materials. In this work, circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) spectra are reported for a pillar[5]arene with stable planar chirality using tetrahydrofuran (THF) and cyclohexane as solvents, which has been missing for many years. The pillar[5]arene also forms co‐aggregates with 1,4‐bis(phenylethynyl)benzene and 1,4‐bis[(pentafluorophenyl)ethynyl]benzene in THF/H2O mixtures, owing to a hydrophobic effect. The co‐aggregates with the fluorinated π‐rod display a new low‐energy absorption peak and broad emission band as well as intense circular dichroism and CPL signals. Chiral information from the enantiopure pillar[5]arene core is efficiently transmitted to the co‐aggregates with the π‐conjugated rod, leading to the highest dissymmetry factor for CPL (2.9 × 10−2 at 472 nm) among pillar[n]arene‐based CPL materials.

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