title: Coordination-Driven Self-Assembly of Carbazole-Based Metallodendrimers with Generation-Dependent Aggregation-Induced Emission Behavior.
abstract: A new family of 120° carbazole-based dendritic donors D1-D3 have been successfully designed and synthesized, from which a series of novel supramolecular carbazole-based metallodendrimers with well-defined shapes and sizes were successfully prepared by [2+2] and [3+3] coordination-driven self-assembly. The structures of newly designed rhomboidal and hexagonal metallodendrimers were characterized by multinuclear NMR ((1) H and (31) P) spectroscopy, ESI-TOF mass spectrometry, FTIR spectroscopy, and the PM6 semiempirical molecular orbital method. The fluorescence emission behavior of ligands D1-D3, rhomboidal metallodendrimers R1-R3, and hexagonal metallodendrimers H1-H3 in mixtures of dichloromethane and n-hexane with different n-hexane fractions were investigated. The results indicated that D1-D3 featured typical aggregation-induced emission (AIE) properties. However, different from ligands D1-D3, metallodendrimers R1-R3 and H1-H3 presented interesting generation-dependent AIE properties. Furthermore, evidence for the aggregation of these metallodendrimers was confirmed by a detailed investigation of dynamic light-scattering, Tyndall effect, and SEM. This research not only provides a highly efficient strategy for constructing carbazole-based dendrimers with well-defined shapes and sizes, but also presents a new family of carbazole-based dendritic ligands and rhomboidal and hexagonal metallodendrimers with interesting AIE properties.
authors.affiliation: Shanghai Key Laboratory of Green Chemistry and Chemical Processes, School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China Normal University, 3663 N. Zhongshan Road, Shanghai 200062 (P.R. China).
authors.forename: Wen-Jia
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: Shanghai Key Laboratory of Green Chemistry and Chemical Processes, School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China Normal University, 3663 N. Zhongshan Road, Shanghai 200062 (P.R. China).
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100050 (P. R. China).
authors.forename: Jianqiu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX 78666 (USA).
authors.forename: Xiaopeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100050 (P. R. China). hongwei.tan@bnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Hongwei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.affiliation: Shanghai Key Laboratory of Green Chemistry and Chemical Processes, School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China Normal University, 3663 N. Zhongshan Road, Shanghai 200062 (P.R. China). lxu@chem.ecnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xu
keywords: aggregation-induced emission; carbazoles; dendrimers; platinum; self-assembly