Discrete Macrocyclic Polymer Hosts-Induced Cascade Luminescence Enhancement and Application in Bioimaging

The integration of polymers, supramolecular macrocycles and aggregation-induced emission (AIE) molecules provides numerous possibilities for constructing various functional supramolecular systems. Herein, we constructed supramolecular assembled systems based on discrete macrocyclic polymer hosts via the cooperation of hydra-headed macrocycles containing two or three pillar[5]arene units (defined as P2, P3), the block polymer F127 and AIE molecules (alkyl-cyano modified tetraphenylethene, alkyl-triazole-cyano modified 9,10-distyrylanthracene, defined as TPE-(CN)₄ and DSA-(TACN)₂). Compared with the binary assembly between hydra-headed hosts or F127 and AIE molecules, cascaded supramolecular assembly-induced emission enhancement (SAIEE) in aqueous solution was achieved in discrete macrocyclic polymer-based supramolecular assembled systems. Considering the cascaded SAIEE performance, we have successfully applied discrete macrocyclic polymer-based supramolecular assembled systems to bioimaging and constructed an artificial light-harvesting system (LHs) to explore more potential applications. The supramolecular assembly form of discrete macrocyclic polymers hosts and AIE molecules proposed in this work provides new inspiration for the construction and application of high-performance supramolecular luminescent systems.