Encapsulation of multi-stimuli AIE active platinum(ii) complex: a facile and dry approach for luminescent mesoporous silicaElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/c6ra17273c

• Main Authors: Pasha, Sheik Saleem, Alam, Parvej, Sarmah, Amrit, Roy, Ram Kinkar, Laskar, Inamur Rahaman
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 14.09.2016
• ISSN: 2046-2069
• DOI: 10.1039/c6ra17273c

Luminescent materials have great potential in diverse applications in their solid state. Because these materials are subject to the aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) effect, increasing attention is focused on synthesizing aggregation-induced emission (AIE) active materials to avoid the ACQ effect. Herein a new class of AIE active, excimeric platinum( ii ) complex, [Pt(C^N)(L 1 )(Cl)], 3 [C^N = 2-phenylpyridine; L 1 = N 1 -tritylethane-1,2-diamine] is reported. The complex 3 exhibited mechanofluorochromism (MFC) and thereby transformed into an orange-emitting complex, 3a , upon grinding. Crushing of 3 (or 3a ) with meso -structured silica produced a luminescent composite material, 3b , and thereby the AIE Pt( ii ) complex moved into the mesopores and the process signaled with a drastic change of emission color (yellow → green). The solid-state luminescent behaviour of these complexes was thoroughly studied. The photophysical properties were also supported by TD-DFT based theoretical study. We report the dissociation of a yellow emitting excimeric and AIE active Pt( ii ) complex into the green emitting monomeric form after crushing with mesoporous silica (MS) followed by its encapsulation within the pores of MS.