(415i) Water-Soluble Fluorescent Perylene Dye Supramolecular Polymers with Controlled Chain Length

Controlled supramolecular polymerization enable chemists to create
well-defined supramolecular polymers. It is of great importance to control the
morphology of supramolecular polymers for increasing the long-term stability
and regulating their optoelectronic properties. Most study on them is based on living
initiator or seed method. Here, we reported an alternative, chain termination
method to regulate the supramolecular polymerization. Functional supramolecular
polymers are prepared from self-assembly of a new amphiphilic perylene dye in
water as observed by transmission electron microscopy at molecular level. The
fluorescence of the supramolecular polymers gradually increases with polymer
chain growth in water. Through characterization by 2D NMR, the driving forces
for the formation of the one-dimensional supramolecular polymers was revealed.
The length of the supramolecular polymers could be controlled by adding
water-soluble perylene dye as chain terminators during supramolecular
polymerization. Our work offers an intuitive and effective method of designing
functional molecules to control the supramolecular growth.