Issue 9, 2016

A colour-tunable chiral AIEgen: reversible coordination, enantiomer discrimination and morphology visualization

Abstract

We present a conceptually new approach to synthesise a boron-containing Aggregation-Induced Emissive Luminogen (AIEgen) with a chiral chromophore. An intramolecular N–B coordinating bond results in a low-energy transition that renders the material red-emissive in a solid state. By competitive binding of nucleophiles to the boron atom, this bond is replaced in favour of an intermolecular coordinating bond, which results in a tremendous blue-shift in both the absorption and emission. A supportive DFT computation elucidates that a breakage of the intramolecular N–B coordinating bond causes a tremendous loss of conjugation in the LUMO, resulting in a larger energy gap. Owing to the fact that our scaffold is intrinsically chiral and Lewis-acidic, we demonstrate how our AIEgen discriminates between two pairs of enantiomers in a simple UV-vis measurement. Furthermore, the binding capabilities are exploited to stain polymer blends that comprised a non-coordinating and a Lewis-basic polymer. The red fluorescence that originates only from domains of the non-coordinating polymer is conveniently detected by a fluorescence microscope. Thus, compared to current analytical methods, we present a cheaper and faster methodology to study the micro-morphologies of certain polymer blends.

Graphical abstract: A colour-tunable chiral AIEgen: reversible coordination, enantiomer discrimination and morphology visualization

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
12 Apr 2016
Accepted
31 May 2016
First published
02 Jun 2016
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2016,7, 6106-6114

A colour-tunable chiral AIEgen: reversible coordination, enantiomer discrimination and morphology visualization

J. Roose, A. C. S. Leung, J. Wang, Q. Peng, H. H.-Y. Sung, I. D. Williams and B. Z. Tang, Chem. Sci., 2016, 7, 6106 DOI: 10.1039/C6SC01614F

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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