title: Aggregation-Induced Emission from Fluorophore-Quencher Dyads with Long-Lived Luminescence.
abstract: Aggregation-induced emission (AIE) is an important photophysical phenomenon in molecular materials and has found broad applications in optoelectronics, bioimaging, and chemosensing. Currently, the majority of reported AIE-active molecules are based on either propeller-shaped rotamers or donor-acceptor molecules with strong intramolecular charge-transfer states. Here, we report a new design motif, where a fluorophore is covalently tethered to a quencher, to expand the scope of AIE-active materials. The fluorophore-quencher dyad (FQD) is nonemissive in solutions due to photoinduced electron-transfer quenching but becomes luminescent in the solid state. The intrinsic emission lifetimes are found to be within the microseconds domain at both room and low temperatures. We performed single-crystal X-ray diffraction measurement for each of the FQDs as well as theoretical calculations to account for the possible origin of the long-lived AIE. These FQDs represent a new class of AIE-active molecules with potential applications in organic optoelectronics.
authors.affiliation: †CAS Key Laboratory of Soft Matter Chemistry, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
authors.forename: Biao
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: †CAS Key Laboratory of Soft Matter Chemistry, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
authors.forename: Xingxing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: ‡Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, United States.
authors.forename: Ruffin E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Evans
authors.affiliation: †CAS Key Laboratory of Soft Matter Chemistry, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: §Department of Chemistry, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22903, United States.
authors.forename: James N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Demas
authors.affiliation: §Department of Chemistry, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22903, United States.
authors.forename: Carl O
authors.initials: CO
authors.lastname: Trindle
authors.affiliation: †CAS Key Laboratory of Soft Matter Chemistry, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
authors.forename: Guoqing
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray; D004579:Electron Transport; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000737:chemistry*; D049449:Luminescence; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D008958:Models, Molecular; D015394:Molecular Structure
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes