A pair of tetraphenylethene-based pyridinium salts with valine-containing attachments, TL and TD, were designed and synthesized. They emit faintly and give weak circular dichroism (CD) signals in dilute solutions, but show intense fluorescence and Cotton effects in aggregated state, displaying aggregation-induced emission (AIE) and CD (AICD) features. Their assemblies exhibit circular polarization luminescence (CPL) properties. Furthermore, the assemblies can be utilized as templates to fabricate twisted hybrid silica nanofibers through a supramolecular templating approach. Compared with the supramolecular assemblies, the obtained hybrid silicas show enhanced CPL activities and fluorescence efficiency due to the confinement effect of the silica frameworks.
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