Amphiphilic tribranched scaffolds with polyaromatic panels that wrap perylene stacks displaying unusual emissions

A rigid tribranched scaffold with three anthracene panels was synthesized using a stereocontrolled 1,3,5-triphenylbenzene core. Grinding a mixture of the rigid scaffold and perylene leads to the quantitative formation of a spherical assembly containing stacked perylene molecules in water. The wrapped perylenes exhibit unusual Y-type excimer-like emission (λmax = ∼500 nm) at room temperature. In contrast, an analogous assembly from a flexible tribranched scaffold and perylene shows E-type emission (λmax = ∼610 nm) from the wrapped perylenes under the same conditions.