Controlled Supramolecular Assemblies of Luminescent Tridentate Cyclometalated Alkynyl Gold (III) Amphiphiles in Aqueous Media

chemistry Medicinal and pharmaceutical chemistry Nano- and molecular-scale electronics Nano-biomaterials and bioscience Nanomagnetics Nanomaterials, thin films and nanointerfaces Nanomedicine Nanometrology and nanomechanics Nano-optics Nanopatterning, self-assembly and nanofabrication Nanostructures for energy and sensing applications Natural products chemistry Organo main group chemistry Other nanotechnology (unclassified) Other organic chemistry (unclassified) Photochemistry and photovoltaics Physical organic chemistry Supramolecular chemistry Gold (III) complexes and amphiphiles have been extensively investigated over a decade. Supramolecular assemblies of the gold (III) amphiphiles in aqueous media exhibit high sensitivities to external stimulations for soft functional materials. Herein, we introduce a new molecular design of tridentate cyclometalated gold (III) amphiphile (GA) with flexible molecular structure modifications. Counterion exchange with sodium tosylate induces notable luminescent enhancement and enables controls over supramolecular assembly process. This approach drives a supramolecular assembly transformation of GA from disordered nanosheets to well-ordered nanoribbons upon additions of multiple equivalents of counterion, enabling a tunable pathway for controlled supramolecular transformation.

Amphiphiles; Gold (III) complex; Luminescence; Self-assembly; Supramolecular chemistry | Format: PDF | Size: 4.1 MB | Download | When a peer-reviewed version of this preprint is available, this information will be updated in the information box above. If no peer-reviewed version is available, please cite this preprint using the following information: Cai, K. S.-Y.; Liu, B. B.; Leung, F. K.-C. Beilstein Arch. 2026, 202615. doi:10.3762/bxiv.2026.15.v1 Citation data can be downloaded as file using the "Download" button or used for copy/paste from the text window below. Citation data in RIS format can be imported by all major citation management software, including EndNote, ProCite, RefWorks, and Zotero. © 2026 Cai et al.; licensee Beilstein-Institut. This is an open access work licensed under the terms of the Beilstein-Institut Open Access License Agreement (https://www.beilstein-archives.org/xiv/terms), which is identical to the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0). The reuse of material under this license requires that the author(s), source and license are credited. Third-party material in this work could be subject to other licenses (typically indicated in the credit line), and in this case, users are required to obtain permission from the license holder to reuse the material.