Issue 5, 2015

Very bright mechanoluminescence and remarkable mechanochromism using a tetraphenylethene derivative with aggregation-induced emission

Abstract

Organic materials exhibiting mechanoluminescence (ML) are promising for usage in displays, lighting and sensing. However, the mechanism for ML generation remains unclear, and the light-emitting performance of organic ML materials in the solid state has been severely limited by an aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) effect. Herein, we present two strongly photoluminescent polymorphs (i.e., Cg and Cb) with distinctly different ML activities based on a tetraphenylethene derivative P4TA. As an aggregation-induced emission (AIE) emitter, P4TA perfectly surmounted the ACQ, making the resultant block-like crystals in the Cg phase exhibit brilliant green ML under daylight at room temperature. The ML-inactive prism-like crystals Cb can also have their ML turned on by transitioning toward Cg with the aid of dichloromethane vapor. Moreover, the Cg polymorph shows ML and mechanochromism simultaneously and respectively without and with UV irradiation under a force stimulus, thus suggesting a feasible design direction for the development of efficient and multifunctional ML materials.

Graphical abstract: Very bright mechanoluminescence and remarkable mechanochromism using a tetraphenylethene derivative with aggregation-induced emission

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
07 Feb 2015
Accepted
16 Mar 2015
First published
18 Mar 2015
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2015,6, 3236-3241

Author version available

Very bright mechanoluminescence and remarkable mechanochromism using a tetraphenylethene derivative with aggregation-induced emission

B. Xu, J. He, Y. Mu, Q. Zhu, S. Wu, Y. Wang, Y. Zhang, C. Jin, C. Lo, Z. Chi, A. Lien, S. Liu and J. Xu, Chem. Sci., 2015, 6, 3236 DOI: 10.1039/C5SC00466G

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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