Lanthanide complexes with aggregation-induced emission(AIE)integrate the unique photo-physical properties of lanthanide ions and the AIE features,making them applicable in diverse areas.However,the progress in this area has been rarely reviewed.Herein,we summarize the advance of AIE lanthanide complexes based on the number of lanthanide centers they contain,along with the mechanism and applications in the fields of stimulus-responsive and biological imaging.Meanwhile,the current challenges and the future research directions in this area are also briefly discussed.
Circularly polarized luminescence(CPL) materials exhibit significant potential in applications such as dynamically tunable helical structures and readily functionaliz able side chains, constitute an ideal platform for the construction of smart CPL materials. Precise control over their helical conformations and ordered self-assembly is essential for achieving high-performance CPL and functional integration. This article reviews the research progress of helical poly(3,5-disubstituted phenylacetylene) systems, with a particular emphasis on the mechanisms by which intramolecular interactions regulate helical conformations and enable reversible switching of circularly polarized and insights for establishing controllable construction routes from helical polymers to macroscopic chiral photonic functional materials. In addition, the applications of CPL-active poly(3, 5-disubstituted phenylacetylene)s in func & hybull;tional materials, such as chiral recognition and detection as well as mechanochromic fluorescence, are introduced.Finally, this article summarizes the challenges currently faced by this class of materials in terms of side-chain functional expansion, solid-state device fabrication, and comprehensive performance optimization, and offers perspectives on future development directions.
This review summarizes recent advances in unconventional hyperbranched luminescent polymers containing Si, P, and B. These luminescent polymers form three-dimensional hyperbranched topological structures through organic-inorganic hybrid units such as Si-O-C, P-O-C, and B-O-C. Internally enriched with heteroatoms bearing lone pairs(e.g., O, N, S), these heteroatoms spontaneously form clusteroluminogens through spatial n/pi interactions, multiple hydrogen-bond networks and nonmetallic coordination bonds. Exhibiting excellent biocompatibility, these luminescent materials demonstrate significant application potential in fields such as drug-controlled-release visualization, cellular bioimaging, and advanced information encryption. We focus on discussing the luminescence mechanism and structure-property relationships of this luminescent material, while identifying current challenges and future research directions.
The spatio-temporal analysis of organelles and their microenvironments is pivotal to understanding cellular life processes. Conventional fluorescent dyes suffer from limitations such as quenching at high concentrations and poor photostability, rendering them unsuitable for long-term, high signal-to-noise ratio live-cell imaging. Aggregation-induced emission(AIE) materials have emerged to address these challenges, demonstrating unique advantages. This paper systematically summarises design strategies for AIE molecular probes and their imaging reticulum, and Golgi apparatus. It identifies challenges in super-resolution imaging, molecular design of near-infrared AIE probes, cross-species imaging, logic response, and toxicity assessment, while outlining future directions for organelle imaging with AIE molecular probes.
Optical visualization provides a highly sensitive, non-invasive, and straightforward approach for the in situ monitoring of bulk polymerization processes. This paper synthesized a 9,14-diphenyl-9,14-dihydrodibenzo[a,c] phenazine(DPAC)-based molecule, whose distinct excited-state conformational responses under different micro-environments enabled the monitoring of microscopic dynamic changes within the system. During the polymerization of methyl methacrylate(MMA), the system transfer from a liquid monomer to a solid polymer. Accompanying this process, the fluorescence of DPAC shifts from red to blue, reflecting the increase in local viscosity and the restriction of molecular motion. Subsequently, the gradual enhancement of phosphorescence and the extension of its lifetime indicate the rising rigidity of the polymer network. Through dual-channel monitoring based on ratio-metric fluores & hybull; cence and phosphorescence, this strategy makes the visual tracking of bulk polymerization feasible.
A clusteroluminescent material serving as a "delayed fluorescence template" was constructed via pressure-induced electrostatic assembly. Bulk materials were formed through the electrostatic complexation of anionic polyacrylamide(APAM) and polyhexamethylene biguanide hydrochloride(PHMB). Within this matrix, guanidyl, carboxylate, and amide groups are tightly interconnected via electrostatic and hydrogen bonding interactions, facili & hybull; tating clusteroluminescence through through-space interactions. Notably, the embedded fluorescent dyes interact with either polymer component through electrostatic or polarization effects. Consequently, upon the incorporation of various dyes, the material exhibits delayed fluorescence, effectively acting as a template that activates this property in diverse fluorophores. By embedding distinct dyes, dynamic phosphorescent anti-counterfeiting applications are realized. This work provides a novel strategy and platform for the realization and application of delayed fluorescence.
In the conventional framework of organic optoelectronics,strong electron-phonon coupling between excited-state electrons and molecular vibrations or lattice phonons typically leads to ultrafast nonradiative energy dissipation,thereby limiting further improvements in emission efficiency and device performance.To address this challenge,extensive efforts over the past decade have focused on suppressing nonradiative transitions by weakening nonadiabatic electron-phonon coupling channels through molecular rigidification,conformational restriction,and structural regulation at the material and device levels.Recent studies,however,have demonstrated that phonon dynamics in organic systems with highly ordered aggregate structures do not necessarily proceed on ultrafast timescales.Using experimental approaches such as photoexcitation-modulated Raman spectroscopy,anomalously slow phonon relaxation behaviors extending from milliseconds to seconds have been observed in specific ordered aggregates.Subsequent kinetic investigations reveal that when phonon relaxation is significantly slowed,the rate of nonradiative energy transfer from excited-state electrons to the lattice becomes constrained by the phonon dynamical timescale.As a result,excited-state lifetime is kinetically prolonged and the evolution pathways of excited states are effectively reshaped.In parallel,in ordered donor-acceptor aggregate systems,the cooperative interplay between intermolecular charge-transfer excited states and polar-ordered structures can induce an unconventional form of spin-orbit coupling that is distinct from the traditional heavy-atom mechanism.Rather than originating from atomic relativistic effects,this unconventional spin-orbit coupling manifests as polarization-stabilized spin-mixing and spin-conversion channels acting on excited-state dynamics,which can be experimentally probed through dynamical observables such as magnetic-field-modulated photoluminescence.This review systematically summarizes the conventional physical picture of electron-phonon-coupling-induced nonradiative decay in aggregated organic luminescent systems and outlines the major molecular-,material-,and device-level strategies developed to suppress nonradiative loss.It further highlights recent representative advances in anomalously slow phonon dynamics and their role in regulating excited-state timescales,as well as unconventional spin-orbit coupling phenomena induced by charge-transfer states and polar-ordered structures.On this basis,we introduce the concept of a"phonon-gain optoelectronic effect",in which phonons are regarded not only merely as energy dissipation channels but also as active regulators of excited-state dynamics.This framework emphasizes the modulation of phonon relaxation rates and aggregate structural order parameters as a multidimensional strategy for controlling excited-state processes in organic optoelectronic systems.
Stable organic luminescent radicals have emerged as a distinctive class of functional emitters owing to their unconventional electronic structures and spin-allowed radiative transitions, thereby enabling promising opportu & hybull; nities for optoelectronics, spin-related photonics, and quantum technologies. However, severe aggregation-caused quenching(ACQ) in the condensed state-driven by intensified intermolecular interactions and enhanced nonradi & hybull; ative deactivation-remains a major obstacle to practical implementation. Moving beyond low-loading physical doping strategies, recent advances increasingly emphasize molecular-level chemical regulation as a fundamental approach to address ACQ. Two effective directions have emerged: (i) constructing radical polymers to spatially isolate spin centers by creating protective microenvironments, and (ii) precision molecular design to tailor steric pro & hybull; files and packing motifs, thereby modulating intermolecular coupling and suppressing nonradiative loss. This review summarizes the condensed-state photophysical behaviors of organic luminescent radicals, mechanistic insights into ACQ suppression and emission regulation, as well as key design principles across molecular, polymeric, and hybrid radical systems. Remaining challenges and emerging opportunities in bioimaging, optoelectronic devices, and quantum or spin-enabled applications are also discussed to facilitate the translation from fundamental studies toward practical platforms.
In situ highly sensitive and accurate tumor sensing is of great significance for early cancer diagnosis and treatment. Fluorescence sensing of tumor biomarkers has attracted considerable attention due to its advantages of high sensitivity, operational simplicity, and capability for real-time in situ detection. Achieving high-quality tumor fluorescence imaging fundamentally depends on high-performance luminescent probes, and developing near-infrared-II(NIR-II) fluorescent probes with excellent tissue penetration depth and ultra & hybull;high response sensitivity provides a highly promising solution path for this. Herein, we report a NIR-II fluorescent probe, 4,4-6, 7-di (thiophen-2-yl)-[1, 2, 5] thiadiazolo (3,4-gquinoxaline-4, 9-diyl bis N, N-dimethyl-N-[4-(4,4,5,5-tetramethyl-1,3,2-dioxaborolan-2-yl) benzyl benzenaminium (TQT-Bpin), featuring aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristics. This probe can specifically respond to the hydrogen peroxide overexpressed in the tumor region, thereby in situ activating NIR-II fluorescence emission. It exhibits exceptional sensitivity and specificity, enabling real-time and responsive sensing and imaging of hydrogen peroxide in tumor areas, with advantages including an ultra-large Stokes shift (320 nm), excellent selectivity (limit of detection down to 3.6mu*mol / L ) , and superior stability. Such an NIR-II probe, which integrates deep tissue penetration, high sensitivity, and in situ responsiveness, provides a novel strategy for early diagnosis of tumors.
As the core field of supramolecular chemistry,host-guest chemistry leverages the dynamic and reversible non-covalent interactions between host and guest molecules to endow systems with unique stimuli-responsiveness,demonstrating potential in the construction of intelligent materials.Incorporating aggregation-induced emission(AIE)fluorophores to functionalize supramolecular monomers serves as a pivotal strategy for equipping supramolecular polymer systems with optical sensing and bioimaging capabilities.In this work,we systematically review the primary synthetic strategies for AIE-active supramolecular polymers driven by host-guest interactions and elaborate on the assembly systems constructed from five categories of classical macrocyclic hosts alongside their current applications.Furthermore,the challenges encountered in the precision preparation,in-situ characterization,and practical implementation of these polymers are discussed in depth.
Conventional organic luminescent materials often suffer from fluorescence quenching due to 7r-7r stacking in the aggregated state, severely limiting their performance in solid-state applications. The discovery of aggregation-induced emission(AIE) has provided a revolutionary approach to addressing this challenge. However, small-molecule AIE materials still face issues such as single functionality and limited structural tunability. To overcome these limitations, integrating AIE units with dendrimers featuring precise three-dimensional topologies, thus developing AIE-active dendrimers, has emerged as an important strategy for achieving efficient solid-state luminescence, multi- functional integration, and stimuli-responsive behavior. This review systematically summarizes recent progress in this field, with a focus on two representative systems: tetraphenylethene(TPE) and 9,10-distyrylanthracene(DSA). By examining their controllable synthesis strategies, multi-scale structural characterization methods, and structure-activity relationships, we elucidate how the precise dendritic framework can significantly enhance fluorescence quantum yield, tune emission color, and endow materials with excellent AIE performance by restricting intramolecular motion. Special emphasis is placed on the dynamic responsive properties enabled by the incorporation of rotaxane units, as well as their innovative applications in artificial light-harvesting systems, circularly polarized luminescence, and intelligent information encryption. Through precise structural design, AIE-active dendrimers not only effectively mitigate aggregation-caused quenching but also enable rational modulation of luminescent properties and synergistic integration of multiple functions. Finally, current challenges in precision synthesis, mechanistic understanding of dynamic behaviors, and translation into biomedical applications are outlined, and future development trends are discussed. This review aims to provide a valuable reference for the design and development of next-generation high-performance and intelligent luminescent materials.
Thick-layer organic light-emitting diodes(OLEDs) comprising a single thick film to simultaneously transport carriers and emit light offer significant advantages in simplifying the fabrication process and enhancing balanced bipolar carrier transport, strong solid-state emission and high exciton utilization, which impose high requirements on designing luminescent materials. In this work, two representative bipolar aggregation-induced delayed fluorescence(AIDF) emitters are employed to fabricate such thick-layer non-doped devices. Excellent electroluminescence(EL) performances are attained with low turn-on voltages(2.5 V), high external quantum efficiencies(19.8%), and negligible efficiency roll-off at high luminance. Furthermore, the operational lifetime of the thick-layer device increases by more than twofold compared to that of the thin-layer devices. In addition, high-efficiency, high-color-purity simplified thick-layer hyperfluorescence OLEDs are also achieved by using their thick neat films as sensitizers for multi-resonance emitters. These results indicate that the bipolar AIDF emitters are promising candidates for constructing simple thick-layer OLEDs, which provides a feasible strategy for developing highly efficient and stable OLEDs.
Aggregation-induced emission(AIE) molecules provide a promising way for the application and develop & hybull; ment of solid-state organic luminescent materials. However, the luminescent quantum efficiency of AIE in dilute solu & hybull; tion is often limited by non-radiative decay caused by intramolecular motions. Constructing "confined environments" can effectively suppress their non-radiative decay pathways, thereby achieving luminescent enhancement. Currently, a variety of experimental methods have been developed to regulate luminescence through confined environments, with different underlying mechanisms, yet the underlying mechanism at the microscopic level remain unclear. This paper summarizes recent advances in multiscale theoretical simulations that elucidate the mechanisms of AIE luminescence enhancement in different confined environments. It systematically discusses how various confined environments, such as amorphous aggregation, (co-)crystallization, high pressure, host-guest inclusion, cell-membrane, and photochemical reactions, regulate molecular conformation, packing arrangements, electronic structures, and excited-state dynamics. The structure-property relationships among molecular structure, confined environment, and luminescent performance are clarified, providing a theoretical understanding of the microscopic origin of luminescence enhancement induced by confined environments. This work offers a theoretical foundation for the design and performance optimization of high-performance AIE materials, thereby promoting their applications in optoelectronics, bioimaging, and sensing.
Surgery serves as a primary approach to curing major diseases and holds significant value in clinical treatment.However,traditional surgical methods mainly rely on the visual observation and experiential judgment of surgeons,which can easily lead to inaccuracies in identifying lesion boundaries and during excision,potentially resulting in postoperative complications.Therefore,the development of surgical navigation tools with high sensitivity and specificity has become a critical issue urgently needing resolution in modern medicine.Owing to its advantages such as non-invasiveness,high sensitivity,ease of operation,and the ability to detect biological analytes in real time at the molecular level,fluorescence imaging technology has emerged as a powerful tool for surgical navigation.Fluorescent probes,as the molecular foundation of fluorescence imaging,have garnered considerable attention from researchers.Although a variety of fluorescent probes with diverse structures have been developed,most reported probes still suffer from drawbacks such as fluorescence quenching in the aggregated state,poor photostability,and relatively short emission wavelengths.Aggregation-induced emission(AIE)probes,with their outstanding characteristics including bright emission in the aggregated state,excellent photostability,and widely tunable emission wavelengths,are becoming a new research focus in this field.This article systematically reviews recent advances in AIE probes for surgical navigation,with a focus on their molecular design strategies and specific application cases.Based on their emission wavelengths,AIE probes are categorized into two groups:visible light/NIR-I and NIR-II.Finally,the future development trends and application prospects of AIE probes in the field of surgical navigation are discussed.
Aggregation-induced emission(AIE) has been evolved into an emerging scientific field pioneered by Chinese scientists and now attracting extensive interest worldwide, with the development of AIE study for more than twenty years. With the increasing depletion of global fossil energy, there is a growing demand for AIE materials derived from natural products and an urgent need for their efficient utilization, exemplified by the increasing attention on bioresource-based aggregation-induced emission luminogens(BioAIEgens) due to their merits of wide raw material resources, low cost, high biocompatibility and great diversity. These BioAIEgens materials have been used in study of chemosensing, bioimaging, food inspection, tumor theranostics, etc. However, most BioAIEgens still face the challenges of hard modification, low luminescence efficiency, limited functionalization, insufficient utilization, and limited application sites. In the review, the AIE mechanism behind is outlined. According to the classifications of alkaloids, flavonoids, coumarins and terpenoids, the luminescence properties and structural modifications of recently reported BioAIEgens are analyzed and summarized. And the luminescence mechanism and applications of these materials are discussed. It is hoped that this review could provide insights for the future development of novel efficient BioAIEgens.
Circularly polarized luminescence(CPL)materials have attracted considerable attention in recent years owing to their promising applications in 3D displays,information encryption,and bioimaging.The luminescence dissymmetry factor(glum)is a key parameter to evaluated CPL materials.Effectively enhancing glum is not only one of the core challenges but also a crucial prerequisite for advancing CPL technologies toward practical applications.Recent studies have demonstrated that a co-assembly strategy involving achiral polymers and chiral dopants can induce the formation of ordered helical supramolecular structures,thereby significantly amplifying CPL responses while enabling precise modulation of CPL properties without altering the polymer backbone.This review provides a systematic overview of recent advances in achiral-polymer-based co-assembled CPL materials.According to the chiral source,these systems are categorized into three types:co-assembly with chiral small molecules,co-assembly with chiral macromolecules,and co-assembly induced by chiral symmetry breaking.Particular emphasis is placed on their co-assembly mechanisms and structure-property relationships.In addition,this review outlines recent progress in the application of these materials in optoelectronic devices and discusses the major challenges currently faced in the field,as well as future development directions.This review aims to offer valuable insights and guidance for the rational design and development of next-generation high-performance CPL materials.
Near-infrared II(NIR-II, 1000-1700 nm) dyes have emerged as a promising tool for invivo fluorescence imaging due to their enhanced tissue penetration, reduced light scattering, and minimized autofluorescence interfer & hybull; ence. In various aggregated systems, J-aggregates typically form through "head-to-tail" or "slip-stack" arrangements of dye molecules, resulting in a pronounced red shift in both absorption and emission spectra, offering an effective strategy for achieving NIR-II emission. Recent studies have introduced a range of borondipyrromethene(BODIPY) derivatives that, through molecular design and self-assembly, form NIR-II J-aggregates with excellent photophysical properties. The core construction strategy lies in effectively blocking H-face-to-face stacking between the backbone by introducing steric hindrance, regulating electronic effects, or constructing non-covalent interaction networks, thereby inducing and stabilizing highly ordered J-type slip stacking. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the progress in the molecular design, synthesis, self-assembly behavior, and structural regulation of BODIPY-based NIR-II J-aggregates. Furthermore, it highlights their recent advancements in biomedical applications, including biological imaging, photothermal therapy(PTT), photodynamic therapy(PDT), and integrated theranostics. The challenges and future perspectives for BODIPY-based NIR-II dyes are also discussed.
Supramolecular polymer networks(SPNs)are a class of functional systems formed by cross-linking poly-mers through dynamic and reversible non-covalent interactions.Their unique structures have driven the development of various functional materials.As an important branch,fluorescent supramolecular polymer networks(FSPNs)significantly expand the variety and functional dimensions of polymer materials by ingeniously combining the dynamic nature of non-covalent interactions with the rich photophysical properties of fluorophores.These systems exhibit broad application prospects in fields such as information storage materials,chemical sensing,and optoelectronic functional materials.Herein,this review summarized the research progress of FSPNs in the past five years,taking the types of non-covalent interactions as the main thread,and looks forward to their future development directions.This review aims to systematically summarize the preparation strategies and application status in this field,providing references for an in-depth understanding of FSPNs and offering valuable insights for the design of advanced fluorescent materials and multifunctional polymer materials.
The morphology of active layer plays a critical role in determining the photovoltaic performance of organic solar cells(OSCs). However, binary blends often suffer from suboptimal phase separation, which limits the efficiency of OSCs. Herein, two bridging polymer acceptors(PAs)-benzodithiophene-(2-ethylhexyl)oxy(BDT-C2C4) and benzodithiophene-octyloxy(BDT-C-8)-are designed and synthesized by combining a benzodithiophene(BDT) unit as the donor moiety[poly({4,8-bis[5-(2-ethylhexyl)-4-fluorothiophen-2-yl]benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophene-2,6-diyl}){5,8-bis[4-(2-butyloctyl)thiophen-2-yl]dithieno[3',2':3,4]}, D18], and a2,2 '-((2Z,2 ' Z)-{[12,13-Bis (2-butyloctyl)-12,13-dihydro-3,9-dinonylthieno[2,3]thieno[3,2-b]pyrrolo[4,5-g]thieno[2,3-b]indole-2,10-diyl] bis(methanylylidene)}bis(3-oxo-2,3-dihydro-1H-indene-2,1-diylidene))dimalononitrile(Y6) derivative as the acceptor moiety. BDT-C2C4 and BDT-C-8 are functionalized with (2-ethylhexyl)oxy and octyloxy side chains on the BDT unit, respectively. Both PAs show complementary absorption and cascaded energy levels with the donor D18 and the acceptor 2,2 '-((2Z,2 ' Z)-{[12,13-bis(3-ethylheptyl)-3,9-diundecyl-12,13-dihydro-[1,2,5]thiadiazolo[3,4-e]thieno [2 '',3 ''& ratio;4 ',5 ']thieno[2 ',3 '& ratio;4,5]pyrrolo[3,2-g]thieno[2 ',3 '& ratio;4,5]thieno[3,2-b]indole-2,10-diyl]bis(methaneylylidene)}bis(5,6-difluoro-3-oxo-2,3-dihydro-1H-indene-2,1-diylidene))dimalononitrile(N3), but BDT-C-8 exhibits better compatibility with D18 and N3 compared to BDT-C2C4. When incorporated as a third component into the D18 & ratio;N3 blend, both PAs improve the active layer morphology. In particular, the D18 & ratio;N3 & ratio;BDT-C-8 blend shows significantly optimized morphology, featuring reduced phase separation and a fibrous network structure. As a result, the device based on D18 & ratio;N3 & ratio;BDT-C-8 achieves a power conversion efficiency of 18.18%, significantly higher than that of the device based on D18 & ratio;N3(ca.17.37%). This work presents a compatibilizer strategy for optimizing blend morphology towards high-performance ternary OSCs.
Under ultraviolet(UV)light,the persulfurated arenes derivative 6SPh-IM exhibits photoexcitation-induced assembly(PEIA)effect.The study further reveals its ability to drive the change of the aggregation state of the biomacromolecule assembly.Under UV irradiation,the aggregated system demonstrates distinct emission spectra,particle size distributions,and circular dichroism(CD)signals,with transmission electron microscopy(TEM)revealing controllable self-assembly morphologies.This strategy of inducing molecular motion upon UV irradiation to modulate system morphology provides novel insights for self-assembly regulation.
