Polymer assemblies with photoluminescent properties are of increasing interest for biomedical applications, ranging from biosensing, bioimaging to biotracking. However, the preparation of these nano/micro-objects often requires multistep polymer synthesis and...
Aggregation-Induced Emission (AIE) is a unique phenomenon whereby
aggregation of molecules induces fluorescence emission as opposed to the
more commonly known Aggregation-Caused Quenching (ACQ). AIE has the
potential to be utilized in the large-scale production of AIE-active
polymeric materials because of their wide range of practical
applications such as stimuli-responsive sensors, biological imaging
agents, and drug delivery systems. This is evident from the increasing
number of publications over the years since AIE was first discovered. In
addition, the ever-growing interest in this field has led many
researchers around the world to develop new and creative methods in the
design of monomers, initiators and crosslinkers, with the goal of
broadening the scope and utility of AIE polymers. One of the most
promising approaches to the design and synthesis of AIE polymers is the
use of the Reversible-Deactivation Radical Polymerization (RDRP)
techniques, which enabled the production of well-controlled AIE
materials that are often difficult to achieve by other methods. In this
review, a summary of some recent works that utilize RDRP for AIE polymer
design and synthesis is presented, including (1) the design of
AIE-related monomers, initiators/crosslinkers; the achievements in
preparation of AIE polymers using (2) Reversible Addition-Fragmentation
Chain Transfer (RAFT) technique; (3) Atom Transfer Radical
Polymerization (ATRP) technique; (4) other techniques such as Cu(0)-RDRP
technique and Nitroxide-Mediated Polymerization (NMP) technique; (5) the
possible applications of these AIE polymers and finally (6) a
summary/perspective and the future direction of AIE polymers.
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