Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
7.4
4.2
Journals
Molecules
Special Issues
Aggregation-Induced Emission: Materials and Applications
molecules-logo
Submit to Molecules Review for Molecules Propose a Special Issue

Journal Menu

► Journal Menu

Journal Browser

► Journal Browser
share announcement

Aggregation-Induced Emission: Materials and Applications

A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Photochemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2019) | Viewed by 44964

Special Issue Editor

Dr. F. Christopher Pigge

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Chemistry, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52245, USA
Interests: supramolecular chemistry; bioorganic chemistry; bioimaging; organometallic chemistry; organic synthesis

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Aggregation-induced emission (AIE) is a term introduced by B. Z. Tang in 2001 to describe situations in which non-emissive or weakly emissive organic molecules exhibit enhanced luminescence when forced into molecular aggregation in the presence of poor solvents or in the solid state. In the intervening years the definition has been expanded to include organic luminophores that display enhanced or “turn on” emission when placed in an environment that impedes intramolecular motion—especially arene bond rotation. While traditional AIE scaffolds include hexaphenylsiloles and tetraphenylethylenes, a number of additional molecular frameworks have been identified that also demonstrate AIE properties. The luminescent features of AIE active systems differ from those observed in conventional organic fluorophores (which often experience aggregation-caused quenching), and AIE-active luminophores have been utilized in an impressive range of applications spanning materials chemistry to chemical biology operating in the solution phase and the solid state. The aim of this Special Issue is to highlight recent developments in the design and construction of AIE-active systems in the broadly defined area of functional materials.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. F. Christopher Pigge
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Molecules is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Aggregation-induced emission
  • Fluorescence
  • Luminescence
  • Turn-on emission
  • Luminescent sensing
  • Bioimaging
  • OLED

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (8 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Jump to: Review

14 pages, 2909 KiB  
Article
ICT and AIE Characteristics Two Cyano-Functionalized Probes and Their Photophysical Properties, DFT Calculations, Cytotoxicity, and Cell Imaging Applications
by Arup Tarai, Meina Huang, Pintu Das, Wenhui Pan, Jianguo Zhang, Zhenyu Gu, Wei Yan, Junle Qu and Zhigang Yang
Molecules 2020, 25(3), 585; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules25030585 - 29 Jan 2020
Cited by 26 | Viewed by 5380
Abstract
Two probes, AIE-1 and AIE-2, were synthesized to investigate the effect of substitutional functional group on aggregation (aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) or aggregation-induced emission (AIE)) and intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) behavior as well as on the cell imaging aspect. The yellow-color non-substituted probe AIE-1 [...] Read more.
Two probes, AIE-1 and AIE-2, were synthesized to investigate the effect of substitutional functional group on aggregation (aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) or aggregation-induced emission (AIE)) and intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) behavior as well as on the cell imaging aspect. The yellow-color non-substituted probe AIE-1 showed weak charge-transfer absorption and an emission band at 377 nm and 432 nm, whereas the yellowish-orange color substituted probe AIE-2 showed a strong charge-transfer absorption and an emission band at 424 nm and 477 nm in THF solvent. The UV-Vis studies of AIE-1 and AIE-2 in THF and THF with different water fractions showed huge absorption changes in AIE-2 with high water fractions due to its strong aggregation behavior, but no such noticeable absorption changes were observed for AIE-1. Interestingly, the fluorescence intensity of AIE-1 at 432 nm gradually decreased with increasing water fractions and became almost non-emissive at 90% water. However, the monomer-type emission of AIE-2 at 477 nm was shifted to 584 nm with a 6-fold increase in fluorescence intensity in THF-H2O (1:9, v/v) solvent mixtures due to the restriction of intramolecular rotation on aggregation in high water fractions. This result indicates that the probe AIE-1 shows ACQ and probe AIE-2 shows AIE behaviors in THF-H2O solvent mixtures. Furthermore, the emission spectra of AIE-1 and AIE-2 were carried out in different solvent and with different concentrations to see the solvent- or concentration-dependent aggregation behavior. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and dynamic light scattering (DLS) experiments were also conducted to assess the morphology and particle size of two probes before and after aggregation. Both of the probes, AIE-1 and AIE-2, showed less toxicity on HeLa cells and were suitable for cell imaging studies. Density functional theory (DFT) calculation was also carried out to confirm the ICT process from an electron-rich indole moiety to an electron-deficient cyano-phenyl ring of AIE-1 or AIE-2. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Aggregation-Induced Emission: Materials and Applications)
►▼ Show Figures

Graphical abstract

16 pages, 922 KiB  
Article
Towards Blue AIE/AIEE: Synthesis and Applications in OLEDs of Tetra-/Triphenylethenyl Substituted 9,9-Dimethylacridine Derivatives
by Monika Cekaviciute, Aina Petrauskaite, Sohrab Nasiri, Jurate Simokaitiene, Dmytro Volyniuk, Galyna Sych, Ruta Budreckiene and Juozas Vidas Grazulevicius
Molecules 2020, 25(3), 445; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules25030445 - 21 Jan 2020
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 4023
Abstract
Aiming to design blue fluorescent emitters with high photoluminescence quantum yields in solid-state, nitrogen-containing heteroaromatic 9,9-dimethylacridine was refined by tetraphenylethene and triphenylethene. Six tetra-/triphenylethene-substituted 9,9-dimethylacridines were synthesized by the Buchwald-Hartwig method with relatively high yields. Showing effects of substitution patterns, all emitters demonstrated [...] Read more.
Aiming to design blue fluorescent emitters with high photoluminescence quantum yields in solid-state, nitrogen-containing heteroaromatic 9,9-dimethylacridine was refined by tetraphenylethene and triphenylethene. Six tetra-/triphenylethene-substituted 9,9-dimethylacridines were synthesized by the Buchwald-Hartwig method with relatively high yields. Showing effects of substitution patterns, all emitters demonstrated high fluorescence quantum yields of 26–53% in non-doped films and 52–88% in doped films due to the aggregation induced/enhanced emission (AIE/AIEE) phenomena. In solid-state, the emitters emitted blue (451–481 nm) without doping and deep-blue (438–445 nm) with doping while greenish-yellow emission was detected for two compounds with additionally attached cyano-groups. The ionization potentials of the derivatives were found to be in the relatively wide range of 5.43–5.81 eV since cyano-groups were used in their design. Possible applications of the emitters were demonstrated in non-doped and doped organic light-emitting diodes with up to 2.3 % external quantum efficiencies for simple fluorescent devices. In the best case, deep-blue electroluminescence with chromaticity coordinates of (0.16, 0.10) was close to blue color standard (0.14, 0.08) of the National Television System Committee. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Aggregation-Induced Emission: Materials and Applications)
►▼ Show Figures

Graphical abstract

13 pages, 6449 KiB  
Article
Barbituric Acid Based Fluorogens: Synthesis, Aggregation-Induced Emission, and Protein Fibril Detection
by Siyang Ding, Bicheng Yao, Louis Schobben and Yuning Hong
Molecules 2020, 25(1), 32; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules25010032 - 20 Dec 2019
Cited by 22 | Viewed by 5200
Abstract
Fluorescent dyes, especially those emitting in the long wavelength region, are excellent candidates in the area of bioassay and bioimaging. In this work, we report a series of simple organic fluorescent dyes consisting of electron-donating aniline groups and electron-withdrawing barbituric acid groups. These [...] Read more.
Fluorescent dyes, especially those emitting in the long wavelength region, are excellent candidates in the area of bioassay and bioimaging. In this work, we report a series of simple organic fluorescent dyes consisting of electron-donating aniline groups and electron-withdrawing barbituric acid groups. These dyes are very easy to construct while emitting strongly in the red region in their solid state. The photophysical properties of these dyes, such as solvatochromism and aggregation-induced emission, are systematically characterized. Afterward, the structure–property relationships of these barbituric acid based fluorogens are discussed. Finally, we demonstrate their potential applications for protein amyloid fibril detection. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Aggregation-Induced Emission: Materials and Applications)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

12 pages, 1837 KiB  
Article
Highly Efficient Aggregation-Induced Room-Temperature Phosphorescence with Extremely Large Stokes Shift Emitted from Trinuclear Gold(I) Complex Crystals
by Osamu Tsutsumi, Masakazu Tamaru, Hitoya Nakasato, Shingo Shimai, Supattra Panthai, Yuki Kuroda, Kenta Yamaguchi, Kaori Fujisawa and Kyohei Hisano
Molecules 2019, 24(24), 4606; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules24244606 - 16 Dec 2019
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 4727
Abstract
Highly efficient (≈75% quantum yield), aggregation-induced phosphorescence is reported. The phosphorescence is emitted at room temperature and in the presence of air from crystals of trinuclear Au(I) complexes, accompanied by an extremely large Stokes shift of 2.2 × 104 cm−1 (450 [...] Read more.
Highly efficient (≈75% quantum yield), aggregation-induced phosphorescence is reported. The phosphorescence is emitted at room temperature and in the presence of air from crystals of trinuclear Au(I) complexes, accompanied by an extremely large Stokes shift of 2.2 × 104 cm−1 (450 nm). The mechanism of the aggregation-induced room-temperature phosphorescence from the Au complex crystals was investigated in terms of the crystal packing structure and the primary structure of the molecules. It was found that two kinds of intermolecular interactions occurred in the crystals, and that these multiple dual-mode intermolecular interactions in the crystals play a crucial role in the in-air room-temperature phosphorescence of the trinuclear Au(I) complexes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Aggregation-Induced Emission: Materials and Applications)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

13 pages, 3841 KiB  
Article
Expanding the Toolbox for Label-Free Enzyme Assays: A Dinuclear Platinum(II) Complex/DNA Ensemble with Switchable Near-IR Emission
by Moustafa T. Gabr and F. Christopher Pigge
Molecules 2019, 24(23), 4390; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules24234390 - 1 Dec 2019
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 4197
Abstract
Switchable luminescent bioprobes whose emission can be turned on as a function of specific enzymatic activity are emerging as important tools in chemical biology. We report a promising platform for the development of label-free and continuous enzymatic assays in high-throughput mode based on [...] Read more.
Switchable luminescent bioprobes whose emission can be turned on as a function of specific enzymatic activity are emerging as important tools in chemical biology. We report a promising platform for the development of label-free and continuous enzymatic assays in high-throughput mode based on the reversible solvent-induced self-assembly of a neutral dinuclear Pt(II) complex. To demonstrate the utility of this strategy, the switchable luminescence of a dinuclear Pt(II) complex was utilized in developing an experimentally simple, fast (10 min), low cost, and label-free turn-on luminescence assay for the endonuclease enzyme DNAse I. The complex displays a near-IR (NIR) aggregation-induced emission at 785 nm in aqueous solution that is completely quenched upon binding to G-quadruplex DNA from the human c-myc oncogene. Luminescence is restored upon DNA degradation elicited by exposure to DNAse I. Correlation between near-IR luminescence intensity and DNAse I concentration in human serum samples allows for fast and label-free detection of DNAse I down to 0.002 U/mL. The Pt(II) complex/DNA assembly is also effective for identification of DNAse I inhibitors, and assays can be performed in multiwell plates compatible with high-throughput screening. The combination of sensitivity, speed, convenience, and cost render this method superior to all other reported luminescence-based DNAse I assays. The versatile response of the Pt(II) complex to DNA structures promises broad potential applications in developing real-time and label-free assays for other nucleases as well as enzymes that regulate DNA topology. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Aggregation-Induced Emission: Materials and Applications)
►▼ Show Figures

Graphical abstract

8 pages, 2910 KiB  
Article
Dual Monitoring of Cracking and Healing in Self-healing Coatings Using Microcapsules Loaded with Two Fluorescent Dyes
by Young Kyu Song, Tae Hee Lee, Jin Chul Kim, Kyu Cheol Lee, Sang-Ho Lee, Seung Man Noh and Young Il Park
Molecules 2019, 24(9), 1679; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules24091679 - 30 Apr 2019
Cited by 27 | Viewed by 5236
Abstract
We report the development of an extrinsic, self-healing coating system that shows no fluorescence from intact coating, yellowish fluorescence in cracked regions, and greenish fluorescence in healed regions, thus allowing separate monitoring of cracking and healing of coatings. This fluorescence-monitoring self-healing system consisted [...] Read more.
We report the development of an extrinsic, self-healing coating system that shows no fluorescence from intact coating, yellowish fluorescence in cracked regions, and greenish fluorescence in healed regions, thus allowing separate monitoring of cracking and healing of coatings. This fluorescence-monitoring self-healing system consisted of a top coating and an epoxy matrix resin containing mixed dye loaded in a single microcapsule. The dye-loaded microcapsules consisted of a poly(urea-formaldehyde) shell encapsulating a healing agent containing methacryloxypropyl-terminated polydimethylsiloxane (MAT-PDMS), styrene, a photo-initiator, and a mixture of two dyes: one that fluoresced only in the solid state (DCM) and a second that fluoresced dramatically in the solid than in the solution state (4-TPAE). A mixture of the healing agent, photo-initiator, and the two dyes was yellow due to fluorescence from DCM. On UV curing of this mixture, however, the color changed from yellow to green, and the fluorescence intensity increased due to fluorescence from 4-TPAE in the solid state. When a self-healing coating embedded with microcapsules containing the DCM/4-TPAE dye mixture was scratched, the damaged region exhibited a yellowish color that changed to green after healing. Thus, the self-healing system reported here allows separate monitoring of cracking and healing based on changes in fluorescence color. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Aggregation-Induced Emission: Materials and Applications)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Review

Jump to: Research

18 pages, 3760 KiB  
Review
Recent Advances in AIEgens for Metal Ion Biosensing and Bioimaging
by Yongming Li, Huifei Zhong, Yanyan Huang and Rui Zhao
Molecules 2019, 24(24), 4593; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules24244593 - 16 Dec 2019
Cited by 47 | Viewed by 5484
Abstract
Metal ions play important roles in biological system. Approaches capable of selective and sensitive detection of metal ions in living biosystems provide in situ information and have attracted remarkable research attentions. Among these, fluorescence probes with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) behavior offer unique properties. [...] Read more.
Metal ions play important roles in biological system. Approaches capable of selective and sensitive detection of metal ions in living biosystems provide in situ information and have attracted remarkable research attentions. Among these, fluorescence probes with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) behavior offer unique properties. A variety of AIE fluorogens (AIEgens) have been developed in the past decades for tracing metal ions. This review highlights recent advances (since 2015) in AIE-based sensors for detecting metal ions in biological systems. Major concerns will be devoted to the design principles, sensing performance, and bioimaging applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Aggregation-Induced Emission: Materials and Applications)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

42 pages, 9895 KiB  
Review
Recent Advances in Aggregation-Induced Emission Chemosensors for Anion Sensing
by Ming Hui Chua, Kwok Wei Shah, Hui Zhou and Jianwei Xu
Molecules 2019, 24(15), 2711; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules24152711 - 25 Jul 2019
Cited by 79 | Viewed by 9089
Abstract
The discovery of the aggregation-induced emission (AIE) phenomenon in the early 2000s not only has overcome persistent challenges caused by traditional aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ), but also has brought about new opportunities for the development of useful functional molecules. Through the years, AIE luminogens [...] Read more.
The discovery of the aggregation-induced emission (AIE) phenomenon in the early 2000s not only has overcome persistent challenges caused by traditional aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ), but also has brought about new opportunities for the development of useful functional molecules. Through the years, AIE luminogens (AIEgens) have been widely studied for applications in the areas of biomedical and biological sensing, chemosensing, optoelectronics, and stimuli responsive materials. Particularly in the application of chemosensing, a myriad of novel AIE-based sensors has been developed to detect different neutral molecular, cationic and anionic species, with a rapid detection time, high sensitivity and high selectivity by monitoring fluorescence changes. This review thus summarises the recent development of AIE-based chemosensors for the detection of anionic species, including halides and halide-containing anions, cyanides, and sulphur-, phosphorus- and nitrogen-containing anions, as well as a few other anionic species, such as citrate, lactate and anionic surfactants. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Aggregation-Induced Emission: Materials and Applications)
►▼ Show Figures

Graphical abstract

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-8
Back to TopTop