Organic solid fluorophores regulated by subtle structure modification: color-tunable and aggregation-induced emission

Chem Sci. 2017 Jan 1;8(1):577-582. doi: 10.1039/c6sc02875f. Epub 2016 Aug 30.

Abstract

Organic solid fluorophores with a tunable emission color have been widely applied in multiple areas. However, rational design and efficient crafting of these fluorophores from a simple core skeleton is still a formidable challenge because of the undesirable concentration quenching emission effect. Herein, we present the development of two series of organic solid fluorophores based on a backbone of p-bis(2,2-dicyanovinyl)benzene. Notably, the introduction of either non-aromatic or aromatic substituents provides fluorophores with a tunable emission color. Moreover, the fluorophores with aromatic substituents exhibit additional unique optical phenomena, such as aggregation-induced emission, polymorphism-dependent emission, and reversible mechanochromic luminescence.