title: Self-assembled hollow nanospheres strongly enhance photoluminescence.
abstract: We report that two molecular building blocks differ only by two protons, yet they form totally different nanostructures. The protonated one self-organized into hollow nanospheres (~200 nm), whereas the one without the protons self-assembled into rectangular plates. Consequently, the geometrically defined nanoassemblies exhibit radically different properties. As self-assembly directing units, protons impart ion-pairing and hydrogen-bonding probabilities. The plate-forming nanosystem fluoresces weakly, probably due to energy transfer among chromophores (Φ < 0.2), but the nanospheres emit strong yellow fluorescence (Φ ≈ 0.58-0.85).
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Photochemistry, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Damei
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ke
authors.forename: Chuanlang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhan
authors.forename: Shuangping
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Xunlei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Aidong
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Shenggui
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Alexander D Q
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Jiannian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yao