Abstract
Fluorescent molecules have widespread applications from fundamental sciences to practical materials and devices. Among them, molecular hosts with fluorescent properties have recently attracted much attention as potential chemosensors, biological probes, and light-emitting diodes. Here we report novel highly fluorescent coordination capsules consisting of anthracene frameworks. Upon simply treatment with M(II) ions (M = Ni, Pd, Pt, and Zn), anthracene-containing bis-monodentate ligands are quantitatively self-assembled into M(II)-linked coordination capsules with ca. 1.5 nm outer diameter. It is noteworthy that the Zn(II)-linked capsule shows strong blue fluorescence by UV-light irradiation, which is in contrast to isostructural Pd(II)-, Pt(II)-, and Ni(II)-linked capsules that show non or weak emissions.
