SYNTHESIS OF AGGREGATION INDUCED EMISSION (AIE) LUMINOGENS

Abstract

Conventional organic luminogens are structurally planar and thus prefer to form pi-pi stacking, leading to the quenching of fluorescence in the aggregated state, which is also known as aggregation – caused quenching (ACQ) effect. This poses limitations to their wide applications. The discovery of an interesting class of unconventional non-planar rotor-like organic luminogens such as hexaphenylsilole (HPS) and tetraphenylethylene (TPE), called AIE luminogens, however, not only addresses challenges faced by conventional ACQ luminogens in real applications but also brings about new possibilities. This thesis focused on the development of a variety of novel organic molecular and polymeric AIE luminogens via structural functionalization with AIE-active moieties, such as triphenylethylene and TPE, as well as their sensing applications.