Sub-10-nm ordered structure and mechanochromism property of polyhedral oligosilsesquioxane tethered tetraphenylethylene
Si-Yu Gao,
Xu-Chen Lv,
Jun-Feng Zheng,
Tao Wen,
Maxim V. Bermeshev,
Xiang-Kui Ren
Affiliations
Si-Yu Gao
School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300350, PR China
Xu-Chen Lv
School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300350, PR China
Jun-Feng Zheng
College of Chemical Engineering, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, PR China; Corresponding authors.
Tao Wen
South China Advanced Institute for Soft Matter Science and Technology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Functional and Intelligent Hybrid Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, PR China
Maxim V. Bermeshev
A. V. Topchiev Institute of Petrochemical Synthesis of Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 119991, Russia
Xiang-Kui Ren
School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300350, PR China; South China Advanced Institute for Soft Matter Science and Technology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Functional and Intelligent Hybrid Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, PR China; Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Luminescence from Molecular Aggregates, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, PR China; Corresponding authors.
The construction of highly ordered nanostructure plays an important role in realizing the specific functions of organic materials. However, it remains challenging to design photoelectric materials with sub-10-nm nanostructures. Herein, a novel tetraphenylethylene derivative tethered with polyhedral oligosilsesquioxane nanocages (TPE-BPOSS) was designed and synthesized. The experimental results reveal that the introduction of POSS nanocages endows TPE-BPOSS with a hierarchically sub-10-nm ordered structure composed of columnar phase of non-planar TPE cores and crystalline phase of POSS moieties. Moreover, due to the transition between the ordered and disordered structure, TPE-BPOSS can exhibit reversible mechanochromism property. It is speculated that incorporating POSS nanocages into different non-planar fluorophores may be a new strategy to prepare functional materials with sub-10-nm nanostructure and luminescent property.
