Bis‐Naphthylacrylonitrile‐Based Supramolecular Artificial Light‐Harvesting System for White Light Emission

Abstract A novel aggregation‐induced emission (AIE)‐based artificial light‐harvesting system (LHS) is successfully assembled via the host‐guest interaction of bis‐naphthylacrylonitrile derivative ( BND ), water‐soluble pillar[5]arene ( WP5 ), and sulforhodamine 101 ( SR101 ). After host‐guest assembly, the formed WP5 ⊃ BND complexes spontaneously self‐aggregated into WP5 ⊃ BND nanoparticles (donors) and SR101 (acceptors) is introduced into WP5 ⊃ BND to fabricate WP5 ⊃ BND‐SR101 LHS. Through the investigation of energy transfer between donors and acceptors, the artificial light‐harvesting processes are certified in WP5 ⊃ BND‐SR101 LHS and the absolute fluorescence quantum yields (Φ f(abs) ) are significantly improved from 8.9% (for WP5 ⊃ BND ) to 31.1% (for WP5 ⊃ BND‐SR101 ), exhibiting the excellent light‐harvesting capabilities. Notably, by tuning the donor/acceptor (D:A) molar ratio to 250:1, a conspicuous white light emission (CIE coordinate is (0.32, 0.32)) is realized and the fluorescence quantum yield of white light emission (Φ f(abs) WP5 ⊃ BND‐SR101‐White ) is 29.2%. Moreover, the antenna effect of white fluorescence emission (AE WP5 ⊃ BND‐SR101‐White ) can reach 36.2, which is higher than that of recent artificial LHSs in water environments, suggesting vast potential applications in aqueous LHSs.