Aggregation-induced emission: the whole is more brilliant than the parts

Ju Mei, Yuning Hong, WY Lam, Anjun Qin, Youhong Tang, Ben Tang

    Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

    2910 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    "United we stand, divided we fall."-Aesop.Aggregation-induced emission (AIE) refers to a photophysical phenomenon shown by a group of luminogenic materials that are non-emissive when they are dissolved in good solvents as molecules but become highly luminescent when they are clustered in poor solvents or solid state as aggregates. In this Review we summarize the recent progresses made in the area of AIE research. We conduct mechanistic analyses of the AIE processes, unify the restriction of intramolecular motions (RIM) as the main cause for the AIE effects, and derive RIM-based molecular engineering strategies for the design of new AIE luminogens (AIEgens). Typical examples of the newly developed AIEgens and their high-tech applications as optoelectronic materials, chemical sensors and biomedical probes are presented and discussed.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)5429-5479
    Number of pages51
    JournalAdvanced Materials
    Volume26
    Issue number31
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 20 Aug 2014

    Keywords

    • aggregation-induced emission
    • biomedical probes
    • chemical sensors
    • optoelectronic materials
    • restriction of intramolecular motions

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