An Artificial Light‐Harvesting System with Controllable Efficiency Enabled by an Annulene‐Based Anisotropic Fluid

Abstract

The development of controllable artificial light‐harvesting systems based on liquid crystal (LC) materials, i.e., anisotropic fluids, remains a challenge. Herein, an annulene‐based discotic LC compound 6 with a saddle‐shaped cyclooctatetrathiophene core has been synthesized to construct a tunable light‐harvesting platform. The LC material shows a typical aggregation‐induced emission, which can act as a suitable light‐harvesting donor. By loading Nile red (NiR) as an acceptor, an artificial light‐harvesting system is achieved. Relying on the thermal‐responsive self‐assembling ability of 6 with variable molecular order, the efficiency of such 6‐NiR system can be controlled by temperature. This light‐harvesting system works sensitively at a high donor/acceptor ratio as 1000 : 1, and exhibits a high antenna effect (39.1) at a 100 : 1 donor/acceptor ratio. This thermochromic artificial light‐harvesting LC system could find potential applications in smart devices employing soft materials.

Self-assembled supramolecular artificial light-harvesting nanosystems: construction, modulation, and applications

“…8B ). 48 NiR was selected as the energy acceptor that was loaded into this thermochromic liquid crystal platform, and then the light-harvesting efficiency could be tuned at different temperatures by regulating the molecular order of the compound LC6. Meanwhile, not only temperature but also the molar ratio of the donor/acceptor could lead to the variation of the emitting color of such an ALHS.…”

“…8B). 48 NiR was selected as the energy acceptor that was loaded into this thermochromic liquid crystal platform, and then the light-…”

“…In the past decade, many types of ALHSs have been developed by employing dendrimers, [33][34][35] molecular arrays, [36][37][38][39] polymers, [40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47] anisotropic uid 48 and amphiphilic selfassembled structures. [49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57] Both covalent and non-covalent interactions are used to bind light-harvesting donors and acceptors.…”

The Materials and Application of Artificial Light Harvesting System Based on Supramolecular Self‐assembly

“…In 2022, Li Quan's research group at Southeast University [59] designed and synthesized saddle-shaped discoidal liquid crystal one-component self-assembled molecules containing a fluorescent core of cyclooctathiophene and multiple alkyl chains using the non-planar structure and AIE properties of cyclooctathiophene. They built an artificial light-harvesting system with special properties using LC6 as the donor and Nile red dye molecule as the fluorescent acceptor.…”

Control of near-infrared dye fluorescence lifetime in all-polymer microcavities

“…19 In this paper, we demonstrate that this effect is also achievable for near infrared (NIR) organic emitters, which is critical due to the importance of the NIR range for communication, sensing, biological imaging and solar cells. [24][25][26][27][28][29] Even though careful molecular design, 30 supramolecular assemblies [31][32][33] and dye blends 34,35 provide an approach to fluorescence kinetics control, using photonic structures offers an additional tool having broad applicability, high effectiveness and straight-forward experimental method. 19,36,37 This offers more flexibility in achieving fluorescence control in solid state devices through simply incorporating the microcavities without changing the dye system, in particular when polymer and flexible materials are used.…”