Themed collection Aggregation-Induced Emission

Guest editors Bin Liu, Andrea Pucci and Thomas Baumgartner introduce this Materials Chemistry Frontiers themed collection on aggregation induced emission.

Mechanochromic fluorescence (MCF) materials are a sort of smart material whose photophysical properties are sensitive to mechanical stimulation, such as photoluminescence color, fluorescence quantum yield and emission lifetime.

One-pot insertion-coupling-addition synthesis gives piperazinyl indolones showing aggregation induced emission and crystallization-induced emission enhancement.

Multi-stimuli responsive properties were found for azepane-substituted β-diketones and difluoroboron complexes, including solvatochromism, viscochromism, aggregation-induced emission, mechanochromic luminescence and halochromism.

Dimethylamino β-diketones with electron donating and withdrawing substituents displayed solvatochromism and aggregation induced emission. In the solid state, a blue to orange color range and thermal and mechanoresponsive properties were achieved.

A tetraphenylethylene (TPE)-based supra-amphiphilic organoplatinum(II) metallacycle was successfully prepared, which presented biological application in cell imaging.

A schematic illustration of the interactions between aggregation-induced emission (AIE)-active surfactants and Gram-negative E. coli.

Two fluorenone-tetraphenylethene AIE luminogens have been designed and synthesized, which exhibit the ultra-high sensitivity to trace water in organic solvents such as THF or dioxane.

Non-charged helical polysilanes (PSi) were spontaneously endowed with CPL on the order of g_em = ±0.02 at 700 nm when non-helical red- and far-red π-conjugated polymeric (PF8DBT) aggregates were employed after ageing at 20–25 °C for 24 h, followed by PSi-selective photoscissoring at 313 nm for 60 s.

1,1-Bis(2-pyridyl)ethylenes with additional thiophene or bithiophene aryl substituents are AIE active compounds that exhibit selective red-shifted chelation enhanced fluorescence (CHEF) in the presence of Hg²⁺ ions.

The control of luminescence properties between fluorescence aggregation-caused quenching and aggregation-induced emission with or without a chemical bond at a single site in boron complexes was accomplished.

We report organic nanoparticles for efficient photoacoustic imaging and photothermal therapy, based on the small molecule BTPETTQ which has a propeller structure and a donor–acceptor–donor configuration.

Intramolecular rotation around the vinyl moiety plays an important role in the whole AIE process of DSA derivatives.

Non-substituted and alkyl-substituted triphenylamine–dibenzo[a,c]phenazine adducts (Q1–Q3) showed the combined features of ICT plus AEE, while the alkoxy-substituted Q4–Q5 exhibited obvious AIE effects.

This study reports for the first time the use of a red-emitting AIEgen, i.e. TPE-AC, for the realization of efficient luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) based on poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and polycarbonate (PC) thin films (25 ± 5 μm).

Tetraphenylfuran, structurally similar to AIE-active siloles, exhibits the traditional aggregation-caused quenching, which is co-caused by the restriction of intramolecular rotation and the conjugation effect.

Chemically and electrochemically generated novel microporous polymer networks (MPNs) have been prepared from tetraphenylethene (TPE)-cored, multifunctional carbazole- or thiophene-based monomers for the fluorescence sensing of nitroaromatic analytes.

An AIE/ESIPT-based nanoprobe has been developed for the specific detection and imaging of H₂S in vitro and in vivo.