The
construction of chiroptical materials with controllable chirality
is of special importance in biology and chemistry. Although tunable
chirality can be realized in various systems, it remains a fundamental
challenge to realize multimodulated chiral inversion. Herein, we report
that chiral alanine derivative and fluorescent cyanostilbene derivative
co-assemble to prepare supramolecular chiral systems, where twist
nanofibers with totally inverted supramolecular chirality and circularly
polarized luminescence are obtained through stoichiometric modulation.
The supramolecular handedness can be inverted by means of altering
the cooling rate and incorporating metal ions. The mechanism study
reveals that the synergistic effect among hydrogen bonds, coordination
interactions, and π–π stacking interactions contributes
to the chirality inversion. This work establishes an effective strategy
to precisely modulate supramolecular chirality in multiple ways, which
shows great potential in developing smart chiroptical materials capable
of achieving complex functionalities.
Regulation
of self-assembly morphology is an effective strategy
to obtain advanced functional materials with expected properties.
However, achieving remarkable morphological transformation by light
irradiation is still a challenge. Herein, three simple spiropyran
derivatives (SP1, SP2, and SP3) are constructed, achieving different degrees of morphological transformation
from nanospheres to hollow tadpole-like structures (SP3), tubular structures (SP2), and microsheets (SP1) after ultraviolet light irradiation. Interestingly, the
hollow tadpole-like structures (SP3) can further extend
to Y-shaped or T-shaped tubular morphology. In the process, SP1, SP2, and SP3 can be isomerized
from a closed-ring form (hydrophobicity) to an open-ring form (hydrophilicity)
in different degrees, interacting differently with methanol solvent
molecules. The formation of hollow structures or microsheets along
with the isomerization of spiropyran derivatives contributes to the
adjustment of the hydrophilicity of the interface. Therefore, SP1, SP2, and SP3 with photoregulated
morphological transformation show promising applications in tunable
interface materials.
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