Highly Fluorescent Aggregates Modulated by Surfactant Structure and Concentration

Abstract

The effects of anionic surfactants on the aggregation-induced emission (AIE) feature of cationic M-silole molecules have been studied. The electrostatic binding of M-silole with the surfactants greatly promotes the aggregation of the mixtures. The M-silole/surfactant aggregates at 1:1 charge ratio exhibit the maximum fluorescence intensity. Excess surfactant molecules will distribute the M-silole molecules into different micelles and weaken the fluorescence. The fluorescence intensity of the mixed M-silole/surfactant aggregates can be effectively modulated by choosing different surfactants. The gemini surfactants display a much stronger ability of enhancing fluorescence intensity than do the single-chain surfactants. Especially, the gemini surfactant with benzene rings shows the best performance in enhancing fluorescence of M-silole due to both the strongest aggregation ability and the pi-pi interaction with M-silole.

Manipulation of the Aggregation and Deaggregation of Tetraphenylethylene and Silole Fluorophores by Amphiphiles: Emission Modulation and Sensing Applications

“…Wang and coworkers studied the influences of concentration and the chemical structure of amphiphiles on the aggregations and fluorescence enhancements. 48 Compound 3 with an ammonium headgroup was found to be soluble in water, and as expected, it was rather weakly emissive in water. However, its fluorescence intensity started to increase after the addition of amphiphiles such as SDS shown in Scheme 3.…”

Towards quantifying the role of hydrogen bonding within amphiphile self-association and resultant aggregate formation

“… 1 , 2 These self-association events, in combination with hydrophobic/hydrophilic solvent interactions inform the structure of any resultant aggregate. 3 Gaining an understanding of these intermolecular, non-covalent self-association events has integrated supramolecular complexation principles into the design of monomeric units, leading to controlled self-association events and novel programmable nanostructures, 2 , 4 – 7 supramolecular organic frameworks 8 (SOFs) and supramolecular gels. 9 – 11 …”

Investigation of interfacial and structural properties of CTAB at the oil/water interface using dissipative particle dynamics simulations

“…In the past decades, a vast number of experimental techniques have been used to investigate the dynamical and structural properties of surfactant systems such as fluorescence [7][8][9][10], resonance Raman scattering [11,12], neutron reflection [13][14][15][16], second harmonic generation [17,18], nuclear magnetic resonance spectrum [19][20][21], and vibrational sum-frequency spectroscopy [22]. However, only a few techniques are available for the investigation of oil/water interface, such as nonlinear vibrational sum-frequency spectroscopy and second harmonic generation.…”