A Novel Strategy to Construct Artificial Light‐Harvesting System Based on Aggregation‐Induced Emission Surfactants for Photocatalysis

Herein, a novel strategy to construct artificial light‐harvesting systems (LHSs) based on micelles is proposed. Two efficient artificial LHSs are fabricated in water based on tetraphenylethene (TPE) modified surfactants (TPE‐SAA). TPE‐SAA can self‐assemble into spherical micelles in an aqueous solution through noncovalent interactions. Due to the aggregation‐induced emission effect of the TPE unit, TPE‐SAA micelles exhibit strong emission and directly act as donors to achieve the energy transfer process. Firstly, two fluorescent dyes (4,7‐bis(thien‐2‐yl)‐2,1,3‐benzothiadiazole (DBT) and amphoteric sulforhodamine 101 (SR101)), which are localized in the hydrophobic interior and positively charged surface of TPE‐SAA respectively, are chosen as energy acceptors to realize the two‐step sequential energy transfer process with high efficiency. In addition, energy transfer can also take place from TPE‐SAA to SR101, and bright white‐light emission with a CIE coordinate of (0.31, 0.33) can be achieved by adjusting the ratio of donor to acceptor. Furthermore, to utilize the harvested energy, the micelle‐based artificial LHSs are employed to promote the aerobic cross‐dehydrogenative coupling reaction. Moreover, the dehalogenation reaction of α‐bromoacetophenone can also be catalyzed by the TPE‐SAA+DBT+SR101 system in water. A surfactant with a tetraphenylethene unit (TPE‐SAA) is designed and synthesized. TPE‐SAA can self‐assemble into spherical micelles and serve as an energy donor to fabricate artificial light‐harvesting system (LHS). Two efficient artificial LHSs are successfully fabricated in water through the Förster resonance energy transfer process. In addition, these two systems can serve as a photocatalyst to promote the aerobic cross‐dehydrogenative coupling reaction and the dehalogenation reaction in water.