A novel stimuli-responsive supramolecular polymer material was constructed by a tripodal gelator, which could act as an optical material and shows potential application in smart window or display materials, with TEA and HCl vapor treatment.

Multifunctional stimuli-responsive supramolecular polymers have applications in the field of smart materials. Herein, a tri-pillar[5]arene-based multifunctional stimuli-responsive supramolecular polymer network gel (SPN-DTG) was successfully constructed. Interestingly, the SPN-DTG shows excellent conductivity and tunable blue aggregation-induced emission (AIE) properties. Meanwhile, a series of metal-ion-coordinated supramolecular polymer network gels (MSPNs) were successfully constructed by rationally introducing various metal ions into SPN-DTG. The xerogel powder of SPN-DTG shows excellent separation capacity for the removal of Fe 3+ , Hg 2+ , Cu 2+ , and Co 2+ from water. More importantly, the Co 2+ -coordinated supramolecular polymer network gel MSPN-Co shows intriguing thermochromic properties. The color of MSPN-Co could be reversibly controlled between light yellow and dark green by controlling the system temperature. In addition, the Fe 3+ -, Hg 2+ -, Cu 2+ -coordinated supramolecular polymer network gel MSPNs (M n+ = Fe 3+ , Hg 2+ , Cu 2+ ) show high selectivity and quick fluorescence response for I − and H 2 PO 4 − . Therefore, the SPN-DTG has applications in multifunctional smart materials with conductivity, AIE, thermochromism, fluorescence detection, and separation properties.

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