Circularly Polarized Luminescence Active Supramolecular Nanotubes Based on Pt^II Complexes That Undergo Dynamic Morphological Transformation and Helicity Inversion

Circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) with tunable chirality is currently a challenging issue in the development of supramolecular nanomaterials. We herein report the formation of helical nanoribbons which grow into helical tubes through dynamic helicity inversion. For this, chiral Pt^II complexes of terpyridine derivatives, namely S-trans-1 and R-trans-1, with respective S- and R-alanine subunits and incorporating trans-double bonds in the alkyl chain were prepared. In DMSO/H₂O (5 : 1 v/v), S-trans-1 initially forms a fibrous self-assembled product, which then undergoes dynamic transformation into helical tubes (left-handed or M-type) through helical ribbons (right-handed or P-type). Interestingly, both helical supramolecular architectures are capable of emitting CPL signals. The metastable helical ribbons show CPL signals (g_lum=±4.7×10⁻²) at 570 nm. Meanwhile, the nanotubes, which are the thermodynamic products, show intense CPL signals (g_lum=±5.6×10⁻²) at 610 nm accompanied by helicity inversion. This study provides an efficient way to develop highly dissymmetric CPL nanomaterials by regulating the morphology of metallosupramolecular architectures.