title: Non-Conjugated Polymer Dots with Crosslink-Enhanced Emission in the Absence of Fluorophore Units.
abstract: A new type of fluorescent material is presented, which is called non-conjugated polymer dots (NCPDs). The NCPDs only possess sub-fluorophores (which are groups such as C=O, C=N, N=O) instead of typical conjugated fluorophore groups, and thus these materials should not have strong photoluminescence (PL) in the usual sense. Nevertheless, the PL of these sub-fluorophores can be enhanced by chemical crosslinking or physical immobilization of polymer chains, which is named the crosslink-enhanced emission (CEE) effect. The significant advances achieved by us and other groups on both experimental and theoretical aspects are discussed, and the covalent-bond CEE, rigidity-aggregated CEE, or supramolecular CEE in NCPDs is elaborated. Moreover, synthetic strategies, unique optical properties, and the promise of NCPDs in bio-related fields, such as bioimaging and drug delivery, are systematically discussed.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012 (P. R. China).|Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305 (USA).
authors.forename: Shoujun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012 (P. R. China).
authors.forename: Yubin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012 (P. R. China).
authors.forename: Jieren
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012 (P. R. China).
authors.forename: Xiaohuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012 (P. R. China). byangchem@jlu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Bai
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Yang
keywords: carbon nanodots; crosslink-enhanced emission; non-conjugated polymer dots; photoluminescence; sub-fluorophores