Assembling aggregation‐induced emission with natural DNA to maximize donor/acceptor ratio for efficient light‐harvesting antennae

Arranging dense donors around a single acceptor for the assembly of efficient light-harvesting antennas is long-standing challenge due to intractable aggregation-caused quenching donors. Herein, we designed cationic aggregation-induced emission (AIE) amphiphile self-assemble with natural DNA duplexes. As an donor, as-prepared AIE could be densely attached phosphate groups duplexes by using smaller trimethylammonium. The long alkyl chain between trimethylammonium and fluorophore allowed avoiding insufficient binding caused steric hindrance fluorophore, resulting in remarkably high donor/acceptor ratio comparable that widely developed custom assemblies. proposed self-assembly strategy provided novel flexible avenues assembling finely controlled systems into little synthetic modifications low cost.