Publication date: 15th May 2026
Non-traditional intrinsic luminescence (NTIL) in non-conjugated systems has opened new directions for light-emitting soft materials, yet its integration into surface-active molecular platforms remains largely unexplored. Here we report amino acid-derived Guerbet-type surfactants as multifunctional materials that combine strong interfacial activity with intrinsic blue emission in the absence of classical luminophores. A series of branched C18 surfactants was synthesised by aldol condensation, catalytic hydrogenation, α-picoline-borane-mediated reductive amination, and deprotection. The resulting surfactants displayed strong surface activity, with sodium salts reducing the surface tension of water to below 30 mN/m and the aspartic acid derivative bC18ASP reaching 25.1 mN/m, outperforming SDS under comparable conditions.
Photophysical analysis revealed pronounced blue luminescence in concentrated solution and in the solid state under UV excitation. Among the investigated compounds, bC18ASP consistently showed the strongest emission across DMSO, methanol, and chloroform. Excitation-emission mapping revealed a broad emissive band in the 380 to 480 nm region with maximum intensity under 340 to 360 nm excitation, while concentration-dependent enhancement supported a cluster-triggered NTIL mechanism driven by through-space electronic interactions and hydrogen-bond-assisted conformational rigidification.
To translate this behaviour into functional light management, related Guerbet-type surfactant films were incorporated into PMMA matrices and evaluated as UV down-converting coatings. Previous film studies established effective UV absorption, visible emission, and reproducible film formation in polymer matrices, with the ortho-aminobenzoic acid-based systems showing the strongest film-level luminescence. Under solar simulation, the best-performing surfactant-containing films delivered a 10 to 12% higher watt output than a blank control film without surfactant, indicating that these materials can actively modify the incident spectral profile in a manner beneficial to solar-energy conversion. Taken together, these results define a new class of intrinsically luminescent, surface-active light-management materials and support their use in UV down-converting films for photovoltaic applications.
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