Fluorescence vesicles by self-assembly of oligo(biphenylene vinylene) bolaamphiphiles in n-hexane

Abstract

Self-assembly of an oligo(biphenylene vinylene); OBPV bolaamphiphile with two polar coils of significantly long poly(propylene oxide); PPO (n = 21) at each end generated a fluorescent vesicle in apolar n-hexane. The vesicle efficiently produced trans-stilbene-like OBPV excimer emissions, as evidenced by an intense, redshifted, structured fluorescence spectrum with a long decay time of 5.0 +/- 0.1 ns. An OBPV chromophore bound at both sides via a polar coil-to-coil interaction in apolar n-hexane was conducive to OBPV excimer emission, as evident from analysis of the spectroscopic data obtained from OBPVs with different PPO coil lengths (n = 13, 21, 34). Crown Copyright (C) 2013 Published by Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.