Highly Luminescent Liquid Crystals in Aggregation Based on Platinum(II) Complexes

Xingtian Hao; Bijin Xiong; Mingli Ni; Bing Tang; Ying Ma; Haiyan Peng; Xingping Zhou; Ivan I Smalyukh; Xiaolin Xie

doi:10.1021/acsami.0c13935

Highly Luminescent Liquid Crystals in Aggregation Based on Platinum(II) Complexes

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2020 Nov 25;12(47):53058-53066. doi: 10.1021/acsami.0c13935. Epub 2020 Nov 11.

Authors

Xingtian Hao¹, Bijin Xiong¹, Mingli Ni¹, Bing Tang², Ying Ma², Haiyan Peng¹, Xingping Zhou¹, Ivan I Smalyukh³, Xiaolin Xie¹

Affiliations

¹ Key Lab for Material Chemistry of Energy Conversion and Storage, Ministry of Education, and National Anti-Counterfeit Engineering Research Center, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Materials Processing and Die & Mould Technology, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China.
³ Department of Physics and Materials Science and Engineering Program, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, Colorado 80309, United States.

PMID: 33174425
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.0c13935

Abstract

Luminescent liquid crystals (LLCs) attract considerable attention because of their broad applications in displays, chemosensors, and anti-counterfeiting. However, it remains challenging to achieve a high luminescence efficiency in LCs because of the common aggregation-caused quenching effect. Herein, we demonstrate a facile approach to designing LLCs with a high quantum yield up to 88% by deliberately tuning the aggregation behavior of platinum(II) complexes with alkoxy chains (C_nH_2n+1O-). LLCs in hexagonal columnar and rectangular columnar phases are achieved when n = 12 and 16, respectively, as revealed by one-dimensional wide-angle X-ray diffraction and small-angle X-ray scattering. These LLCs are able to not only exhibit strong emission at elevated temperatures but also show attractive reversible vapochromism upon alternative CH₂Cl₂ and EtOH fuming, which imparts added functions and promises technological utility.

Keywords: aggregation; anti-counterfeiting; chemosensors; liquid crystals; luminescence; metal···metal interactions; platinum(II) complexes; vapochromism.