Controlling Metallophilic Interactions in Chiral Gold(I) Double Salts towards Excitation Wavelength-Tunable Circularly Polarized Luminescence

Jian-Gong Yang; Kai Li; Jian Wang; Shanshan Sun; Weijie Chi; Chao Wang; Xiaoyong Chang; Chao Zou; Wai-Pong To; Ming-De Li; Xiaogang Liu; Wei Lu; Hong-Xing Zhang; Chi-Ming Che; Yong Chen

doi:10.1002/anie.202000792

Controlling Metallophilic Interactions in Chiral Gold(I) Double Salts towards Excitation Wavelength-Tunable Circularly Polarized Luminescence

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2020 Apr 20;59(17):6915-6922. doi: 10.1002/anie.202000792. Epub 2020 Mar 5.

Authors

Jian-Gong Yang^{1

2}, Kai Li³, Jian Wang⁴, Shanshan Sun⁵, Weijie Chi⁶, Chao Wang⁶, Xiaoyong Chang⁷, Chao Zou⁷, Wai-Pong To⁸, Ming-De Li⁵, Xiaogang Liu⁶, Wei Lu⁷, Hong-Xing Zhang⁴, Chi-Ming Che⁸, Yong Chen^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Photochemical Conversion and Optoelectronic Materials & CAS-HKU Joint Laboratory on New Materials, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, P. R. China.
² University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, P. R. China.
³ Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Polymer Science and Technology, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518055, P. R. China.
⁴ Institute of Theoretical Chemistry, College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun, 130023, P. R. China.
⁵ Key Laboratory for Preparation and Application of Ordered Structural Materials of Guangdong Province, Department of Chemistry, Shantou University, Shantou, 515031, P. R. China.
⁶ Singapore University of Technology and Design, 8 Somapah Road, Singapore, 487372, Singapore.
⁷ Department of Chemistry, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, P. R. China.
⁸ State Key Laboratory of Synthetic Chemistry & Department of Chemistry, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong SAR, P. R. China.

PMID: 31989771
DOI: 10.1002/anie.202000792

Abstract

Materials exhibiting excitation wavelength-dependent photoluminescence (Ex-De PL) in the visible region have potential applications in bioimaging, optoelectronics and anti-counterfeiting. Two multifunctional, chiral [Au(NHC)₂ ][Au(CN)₂ ] (NHC=(4R,5R)/(4S,5S)-1,3-dimethyl-4,5-diphenyl-4,5-dihydro-imidazolin-2-ylidene) complex double salts display Ex-De circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) in doped polymer films and in ground powder. Emission maxima can be dynamically tuned from 440 to 530 nm by changing the excitation wavelength. The continuously tunable photoluminescence is proposed to originate from multiple emissive excited states as a result of the existence of varied Au^I ⋅⋅⋅Au^I distances in ground state. The steric properties of the NHC ligand are crucial to the tuning of Au^I ⋅⋅⋅Au^I distances. An anti-counterfeiting application using these two salts is demonstrated.

Keywords: anti-counterfeiting; aurophilicity; chiral N-heterocyclic carbenes; circularly polarized luminescence; excitation-dependent photoluminescence.

Abstract

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