Strategy to control the chromism and fluorescence emission of a perylene dye in composite organogel phases.

Composite organogels based on 1,3,5-tris(4-dodecyloxybenzoylamino)phenylbenzene (DBAPB), a known gelator, and N,N'-di(octadecyl)-perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic diimide (C18PTCDI), a nongelator dye, have been achieved, leading to controllable color and emitting color changes. SEM images and XRD patterns revealed that the packing of the DBAPB-based gelator could almost be maintained in the composite gels. The temperature-dependent UV-vis absorption and temperature-dependent fluorescence emission spectra illustrated that the color and emitting color of the composite gels could be controlled by the content of C18PTCDI as well as the temperature in the gel phases. When the content of C18PTCDI was 1 mol %, C18PTCDI could be isolated as unimolecules in the composite gel, which was yellow and gave bright greenish-yellow emission under 365 nm light. For the mixed systems containing 2-10 mol % C18PTCDI, the fresh gels, which were obtained after cooling the hot solutions for a short time, were yellow and produced greenish-yellow emission under 365 nm illumination. However, the corresponding stable composite gels, which were obtained via prolonging the cooling time, were red and emitted weak red emission excited by UV light as a result of the formation of C18PTCDI aggregates. The reversible color and emitting color changes could be realized in the gel phases over a narrow temperature range. Moreover, the excitation energy of DBAPB could be transferred to C18PTCDI in the composite gels, leading to obvious emission quenching of the former.