There are a few organic fluorophores which exhibit abnormal emissive behaviors; they exhibit almost no emission in solutions, but they emit strongly after aggregation. Such unusual fluorescent feature is referred as to aggregation-induced emission (AIE) proposed by Tang and his coworkers in 2001.1,2 These AIE fluorophores include tetraphenylethylene (TPE)and 1-methyl-1,2,3,4,5-pentaphenylsilole (Silole), which are nonplanar albeit being composed of conjugated fragments. The AIE feature is generally ascribed to the inhibition of internal rotations after aggregation.2 In recent years, AIE fluorophores have received increasing attentions. In particular, AIE fluorophores were successfully utilized for chemo-/biosensing. We have disclosed series of chemo/biosensors with AIE fluorophores, which can be both sensitive and selective by proper chemical modification of AIE fluorophores and combination of specific chemical and enzymatic reactions.3
Reference:
1. Luo, J.; Xie, Z.; Lam, J.; Cheng, L.; Chen, H.; Qiu, C.; Kwok, H.; Zhan, X.; Liu, Y.; Zhu, D.; Tang, B. Chem. Commun. 2001, 1740.
2. Qin, A.; Tang, B. (ed.) Aggregation-Induced Emission: Fundamentals; John Wiley and Sons Ltd. 2014.
3. a) Shen, X.; Zhang, G.; Zhang, D. Org. Lett. 2012, 14, 1744; b) Huang, X.; Gu, X.; Zhang, G.; Zhang, D. Chem. Commun. 2012, 48, 12915; c) Gu, X.; Zhang, G.; Wang, Z.; Liu, W.; Xiao, L.; Zhang, D. Analyst, 2013, 138, 2427; d) Hu, F.; Huang, Y.; Zhang, G.; Zhao, R.; Zhang, D. Tetrahedron Lett., 2014,55(8), 1471; e) Huang, Y.; Hu, F.; Zhao,R.; Zhang,G.; Yang, H.; Zhang, D. Chem. Eur. J. 2014, 20(1), 158.