TY  - JOUR
A1  - Herbst, Stefanie
A1  - Soberats, Bartolome
A1  - Leowanawat, Pawaret
A1  - Stolte, Matthias
A1  - Lehmann, Matthias
A1  - Würthner, Frank
T1  - Self-assembly of multi-stranded perylene dye J-aggregates in columnar liquid-crystalline phases
JF  - Nature Communications
N2  - Many discoid dyes self-assemble into columnar liquid-crystalline (LC) phases with packing arrangements that are undesired for photonic applications due to H-type exciton coupling. Here, we report a series of crystalline and LC perylene bisimides (PBIs) self-assembling into single or multi-stranded (two, three, and four strands) aggregates with predominant J-type exciton coupling. These differences in the supramolecular packing and optical properties are achieved by molecular design variations of tetra-bay phenoxy-dendronized PBIs with two N–H groups at the imide positions. The self-assembly is driven by hydrogen bonding, slipped π–π stacking, nanosegregation, and steric requirements of the peripheral building blocks. We could determine the impact of the packing motifs on the spectroscopic properties and demonstrate different J- and H-type coupling contributions between the chromophores. Our findings on structure–property relationships and strong J-couplings in bulk LC materials open a new avenue in the molecular engineering of PBI J-aggregates with prospective applications in photonics.
KW  - liquid crystals
KW  - self-assembly
Y1  - 2018
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-319914
VL  - 9
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Grande, Vincenzo
A1  - Soberats, Bartolome
A1  - Herbst, Stefanie
A1  - Stepanenko, Vladimir
A1  - Würthner, Frank
T1  - Hydrogen-bonded perylene bisimide J-aggregate aqua material
N2  - A new twelvefold methoxy-triethyleneglycol-jacketed tetraphenoxy-perylene bisimide (MEG-PBI) amphiphile was synthesized that self-assembles into two types of supramolecular aggregates in water: red-coloured aggregates of low order and with weak exciton coupling among the PBIs and blue-coloured strongly coupled J-aggregates consisting of a highly ordered hydrogen-bonded triple helix of PBIs. At room temperature this PBI is miscible with water at any proportions which enables the development of robust dye aggregates in solution, in hydrogel states and in lyotropic liquid crystalline states. In the presence of 60–95 wt% water, self-standing coloured hydrogels exhibit colour changes from red to blue accompanied by a fluorescence light-up in the far-red region upon heating in the range of 30–50 °C. This phenomenon is triggered by an entropically driven temperature-induced hydrogen-bond-directed slipped stacking arrangement of the MEG-PBI chromophores within structurally well-defined J-aggregates. This versatile aqua material is the first example of a stable PBI J-aggregate in water. We anticipate that this study will open a new avenue for the development of biocompatible functional materials based on self-assembled dyes and inspire the construction of other hydrogen-bonded supramolecular materials in the highly competitive solvent water.
KW  - self-assembly
KW  - dyes
KW  - aqua material
Y1  - 2018
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-204715
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1039/C8SC02409J
SN  - 2041-6539
VL  - 9
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Dostál, Jakub
A1  - Fennel, Franziska
A1  - Koch, Federico
A1  - Herbst, Stefanie
A1  - Würthner, Frank
A1  - Brixner, Tobias
T1  - Direct observation of exciton–exciton interactions
JF  - Nature Communications
N2  - Natural light harvesting as well as optoelectronic and photovoltaic devices depend on efficient transport of energy following photoexcitation. Using common spectroscopic methods, however, it is challenging to discriminate one-exciton dynamics from multi-exciton interactions that arise when more than one excitation is present in the system. Here we introduce a coherent two-dimensional spectroscopic method that provides a signal only in case that the presence of one exciton influences the behavior of another one. Exemplarily, we monitor exciton diffusion by annihilation in a perylene bisimide-based J-aggregate. We determine quantitatively the exciton diffusion constant from exciton–exciton-interaction 2D spectra and reconstruct the annihilation-free dynamics for large pump powers. The latter enables for ultrafast spectroscopy at much higher intensities than conventionally possible and thus improves signal-to-noise ratios for multichromophore systems; the former recovers spatio–temporal dynamics for a broad range of phenomena in which exciton interactions are present.
KW  - energy transfer
KW  - self-assembly
KW  - optical spectroscopy
Y1  - 2018
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-226271
VL  - 9
ER  -