Zhang Haoke, Du Lili, Wang Lin, Liu Junkai, Wan Qing, Kwok Ryan T K, Lam Jacky W Y, Phillips David Lee, Tang Ben Zhong
Department of Chemistry, Hong Kong Branch of Chinese National Engineering Research Center for Tissue Restoration and Reconstruction and Institute for Advanced Study , The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology , Clear Water Bay, Kowloon , Hong Kong SAR, China.
HKUST-Shenzhen Research Institute , No. 9 Yuexing First Road , South Area, Hi-tech Park, Nanshan, Shenzhen 518057 , China.
J Phys Chem Lett. 2019 Nov 21;10(22):7077-7085. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.9b02752. Epub 2019 Nov 5.
The development of molecular machines has long been a dream of scientists and is expected to revolutionize many aspects of technology and medicine. As the prerequisite of a practicable molecular machine, studies on the solid-state molecular motion (SSMM) are not only of scientific importance but also practically useful. Herein, two nonconjugated molecules, 1,2-diphenylethane (-DPE) and 1,2-bis(2,4,5-trimethylphenyl)ethane (-DPE-TM), are synthesized, and their SSMM is investigated. Experimental and calculation results reveal that -DPE and -DPE-TM are capable of performing light-driven SSMM to form excited-state through-space complexes (ESTSC). The radiative decay of ESTSC generates an unexpected visible emission termed clusteroluminescence, which serves as a tool to visualize the process of SSMM. Meanwhile, the original packing structure can be recovered from ESTSC after the removal of light irradiation. This work provides a new strategy to manipulate and "see" the SSMM and gains new insights into clusteroluminescence.
分子机器的发展长期以来一直是科学家们的梦想，有望给技术和医学的许多方面带来变革。作为实用分子机器的前提条件，对固态分子运动（SSMM）的研究不仅具有科学重要性，而且具有实际用途。在此，合成了两种非共轭分子，1,2 - 二苯乙烷（-DPE）和1,2 - 双（2,4,5 - 三甲基苯基）乙烷（-DPE - TM），并对它们的SSMM进行了研究。实验和计算结果表明，-DPE和-DPE - TM能够通过光驱动进行SSMM以形成激发态空间复合物（ESTSC）。ESTSC的辐射衰变产生了一种意想不到的可见发射，称为聚集发光，它可作为可视化SSMM过程的工具。同时，在去除光照射后，ESTSC可恢复为原始堆积结构。这项工作提供了一种操纵和“观察”SSMM的新策略，并对聚集发光有了新的认识。
