Pillar[5]arene-Based Solid-State Supramolecular Polymers with Suppressed Aggregation-Caused Quenching Effects and Two-Photon Excited Emission

Herein we develop
a new pillar[5]­arene-mediated supramolecular
polymerization strategy to control the assembly of dyes 4,7-di-2-thienyl-2,1,3-benzothiadiazole
and 4,7-di-2-thienyl-2,1,3-benzoselenadiazole in the solid state.
The resulting supramolecular polymeric structures drive the dye aggregates
in the solid state from parallel alignments to highly ordered “head-to-tail”
structures, which effectively suppresses excimer formation and thus
aggregation-caused quenching effects and enhances the solid-state
emission efficiency by almost 1 order of magnitude. This, together
with two-photon excited emission, endows these solid-state polymers
with exciting potential in optoelectronic, photonic, and bioimaging
applications.