Fluorescent supramolecular polymers with aggregation induced emission properties

Abstract

Supramolecular polymers, owing to their high response to stimuli, environmental adaptation, and self-repairing capacity, have been considered as a novel class of smart materials for wide ranging applications, such as light harvesting, template synthesis, drug delivery and biomimetic systems. The discovery of aggregation-induced emission (AIE), in which the fluorophores are almost non-fluorescent in the molecular state, but become highly emissive in the aggregate state, brings new opportunities and challenges for the development of materials science. The incorporation of AIE fluorophores into supramolecular polymers gives new vitality to luminescent materials as the aggregation at a high concentration will promote the emission of AIE fluorophores, providing supramolecular polymers with bright emissions and good quantum yields. These intermolecular noncovalent interactions have been considered to be the main driving forces for fabricating fluorescent supramolecular polymers with AIE properties, and have an important influence on the fluorescence properties of the chromophores. Based on these unique properties, AIE fluorescent supramolecular polymers have greatly promoted the development of novel materials for applications in fluorescent sensors, bio-imaging agents and organic electronic devices. In this review, AIE fluorescent supramolecular polymers are classified depending on the different types of main driving forces, including multiple hydrogen bonding interactions, metal coordination bonds, π–π stacking interactions, electrostatic interactions and host–guest interactions. Typical examples of the newly developed AIE fluorescent supramolecular polymers and their applications as chemical sensors, organic electronic materials and bio-imaging agents are presented and discussed.