Facile Cucurbit[8]uril-Based Supramolecular Approach To Fabricate Tunable Luminescent Materials in Aqueous Solution

Light-emitting materials with tunable properties may offer fascinating applications in optoelectronic devices, fluorescent sensors, and imaging agents. Herein, a new supramolecular approach based on host-guest interactions that greatly decreases the number of required synthetic steps and produces a system with tunable and dynamical photophysical properties was developed. Because of the novel electronic distributions of the chromophore guest within the rigid hydrophobic cavity of the cucurbit[8]uril host in this system, color tuning of emissions such as cyan, yellow, green, and white light with efficiency increased fluorescence lifetime, and quantum yield was easily achieved by simple addition of the host in aqueous solution. Stimulus-responsive tuning of color has long been an important area of research into light emissions. The current study distinguishes itself by its combination of simple steps using a single synthetic receptor and a single organic fluorophore guest in a single solution. Our results may provide a promising advancement of the fabrication of smart and tunable luminescent materials.