Modulating the luminescence of a macrocyclic donor by customizing the orbital energies of acceptors.

We developed a strategy of customizing acceptor orbital energies to modulate the luminescence of a macrocyclic donor. Through modulation of acceptor orbital levels, the emission of the macrocyclic donor PY[2] is continuously tuned from blue to orange. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction and theoretical calculations confirm that altering the electronic properties of the acceptor regulates frontier-orbital energy gaps of the donor-acceptor complexes to diversify emission colors.