A supramolecular artificial light-harvesting system based on a luminescent platinum(II) metallacage.

A trigonal luminescent metallacage was constructed by the coordination-driven self-assembly of m -pyridine-modified tetraphenylene ligands with organic Pt(II) acceptors, which exhibited excellent Aggregation-Induced Emission (AIE) properties. An efficient artificial light-harvesting system was successfully constructed by selecting the metallacage as the donor and the hydrophobic fluorescent dye Nile Red (NiR) as the donor molecule in a system of acetone/water (1/9, v/v), The absorption spectra of NiR and the emission spectra of the metallacage showed considerable overlap, achieving energy transfer from the metallacage to NiR.