Supramolecular macrocycle-mediated photoreaction has been a research hotspot recently. Herein, we fabricated a photo-responsive intelligent supramolecular assembly that consisted of a water-soluble dithienylethene derivative (DTE-MPBT) and cucurbit[n]urils (CB[n]). Importantly, CB[n], especially CB[8], could act as activators and trigger conformational alteration of the arm parts (typical molecular rotors) of DTE-MPBT, achieving dual functions, i.e. high-efficiency visible-light-cyclization reaction of the DTE core and fluorescence enhancement of DTE-MPBT, resulting in the formation of a dual visible light-driven fluorescent switch. These unexpected discoveries prompted the supramolecular assembly to be applied to dual-visible-light-controlled targeted lysosomal imaging and QR code information recognition. Moreover, the solid-state assembly exhibited more outstanding fluorescence and visible-light-switched fluorescence performance because of the host–guest-induced aggregation synergistic effect, showing fascinating applications, such as light-manipulative data storage and anti-counterfeiting. In brief, we unprecedentedly adopted a supramolecular strategy of “killing two birds with one stone”, i.e. assembly-activated photochromism (AAP) and assembly-activated emission enhancement (AAEE), to fabricate dual-visible-light-driven fluorescent switches, which show promising application prospects in biomimetic smart nanomaterials based on supramolecular self-assembly systems.

中文翻译：

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葫芦脲激活二噻吩乙烯光反应用于可控靶向溶酶体成像和防伪

超分子大环介导的光反应是近年来的研究热点。在此，我们制造了一种由水溶性二噻吩乙烯衍生物（DTE-MPBT）和葫芦[ n ]脲（CB[ n ]）组成的光响应智能超分子组装体。重要的是，CB[ n ]，尤其是 CB[8]，可以作为激活剂并触发 DTE-MPBT 的臂部分（典型的分子转子）的构象改变，实现双重功能，即DTE核心的高效可见光环化反应和DTE-MPBT的荧光增强，导致形成双可见光驱动荧光开关。这些意想不到的发现促使超分子组装体被应用于双可见光控制的靶向溶酶体成像和二维码信息识别。此外，由于主客体诱导的聚集协同效应，固态组件表现出更出色的荧光和可见光切换荧光性能，显示出令人着迷的应用，例如光操纵数据存储和防伪。总之，我们史无前例地采用了“一石二鸟”的超分子策略，即组装激活光致变色（AAP）和组装激活发射增强（AAEE），制造双可见光驱动荧光开关，在基于超分子自组装系统的仿生智能纳米材料中显示出良好的应用前景。