Visualization and Manipulation of Molecular Motion in the Solid State through Photoinduced Clusteroluminescence

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 (s-DPE) and 1,2-bis(2,4,5-trimethylphenyl)ethane (s-DPE-TM), are synthesized, and their SSMM is investigated. Experimental and calculation results reveal that s-DPE and s-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.