Deep-blue-emitting nanoaggregates from carbazole-based dyes in water.

New amphiphilic carbazole-based dyes assemble in water into deep-blue-emitting, highly fluorescent helical aggregates as observed by transmission electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. Single crystal X-ray diffraction and NMR spectroscopy reveal that self-complementary, antiparallel H-bonding and π-π stacking interactions are the driving forces for the formation of these dye aggregates.