We report a simple design and synthesis of a donor-acceptor tetraphenylethene-naphthalimide (TPE-NI) dyad, in which TPE acts both as an electron-donor for intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) and activator for aggregation induced emission (AIE). Strong solvent-dependent photoluminescence covering almost the whole visible spectrum and AIE in its nanoparticle state compared to its solution state are demonstrated.
We report the synthesis of a dithienylethene-tetraphenylethene (DTE-TPE) conjugated photochromic fluorophore which simultaneously exhibits aggregation-induced emission and reversible fluorescence switching. Photochromic DTE-TPE turns cyan-blue after 5 s of UV irradiation and exhibits a strong green emission at 520-540 nm upon excitation with visible light when present in nanoparticles and the solid state, in contrast to non-fluorescence in solution. DTE-TPE exhibits reversible fluorescence switching under alternating irradiation with UV and visible light (wavelengths greater than 440 nm), when present in nanoparticles and the solid state. The continuous readout of the emissive DTE-TPE film over 1 h upon 440 nm excitation-irradiation causes only a 7% reduction in emission intensity for DTE-TPE. The superresolution fluorescence nanolocalization indicates that the vicinal DTE-TPE emitters show sub-100 nm resolution which is higher than for conventional fluorescent imaging. The spectroscopic and imaging data provides initial guidelines for the screening of molecular scale memory units with the corresponding excitation and detection wavelengths for signal readout and super-resolution imaging agents.
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