Tetraphenylethene-Based Multicomponent Platinum (II) Metallacages with Tunable Luminescence and Aggregation-Induced Electrochemiluminescence Properties

Metallacages (MCs) are one kind of functional 3D supramolecular complexes with controllable structures, their special cage structures lead to diverse photophysical properties, enabling their wide application in catalysis, bio-imaging, and organic light-emitting devices. Herein, a series of tetraphenylene (TPE)-based MCs with tunable structures is reported via the coordination-driven self-assembly strategy. The resulting MCs demonstrate tunable fluorescence (FL) and electrochemiluminescence (ECL) due to their size-dependent energy gaps. More importantly, their aggregation-induced ECL (AIECL) property is observed, and the corresponding self-catalytic ECL enhancement mechanism is proposed. In addition, a sensitive ECL sensor toward iodide ions (I-) is developed based on the competitive coordination of I- with the pyridine group of ligands. This study may promote the design of MCs materials and broaden their applications in the ECL study.