Supramolecular phenanthrene polymers with a negative charged phosphate backbone have been synthesized in our group.^[1,2] These assembled oligomers can act as light harvesting antennas. Herein we replaced the negative charged phosphate backbone by a positive charged amine one and analyzed the aggregation behavior and light harvesting properties. The self-assembly of 1,8-disubstituted amine-linked phenanthrene trimers in aqueous solution formed mono- and even multilayered vesicles based on atomic-force microscopy. The incorporation of pyrene into the vesicles allows an investigation of light harvesting properties.

[1] C. B. Winiger, S. Li, G. R. Kumar, S. M. Langenegger, R. Häner, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2014, 53, 13609-13613.
[2] C. D. Bösch, S. M. Langenegger, R. Häner, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2016, 55, 9961-9964.