AIEgens‐Functionalized Inorganic‐Organic Hybrid Materials: Fabrications and Applications

Abstract

Inorganic materials functionalized with organic fluorescent molecules combine advantages of them both, showing potential applications in biomedicine, chemosensors, light-emitting, and so on. However, when more traditional organic dyes are doped into the inorganic materials, the emission of resulting hybrid materials may be quenched, which is not conducive to the efficiency and sensitivity of detection. In contrast to the aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) system, the aggregation-induced emission luminogens (AIEgens) with high solid quantum efficiency, offer new potential for developing highly efficient inorganic-organic hybrid luminescent materials. So far, many AIEgens have been incorporated into inorganic materials through either physical doping caused by aggregation induced emission (AIE) or chemical bonding (e.g., covalent bonding, ionic bonding, and coordination bonding) caused by bonding induced emission (BIE) strategy. The hybrid materials exhibit excellent photoactive properties due to the intramolecular motion of AIEgens is restricted by inorganic matrix. Recent advances in the fabrication of AIEgens-functionalized inorganic-organic hybrid materials and their applications in biomedicine, chemical sensing, and solid-state light emitting are presented.

Aggregation‐Induced Emission Gemini Surfactant‐Assisted Fabrication of Shape‐Controlled Fluorescent Hollow Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles

“…Silica nanoparticles (SNs) have been intensively pursued over the past few decades owing to their fascinating features and properties, which include ideal chemical stability, rigid structure, uniform and tunable pore structure, facile surface functionalization, and good biocompatibility . Silica received the “generally recognized as safe” status designated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as demonstrated by its common use in food additives and vitamin supplements . In particular, mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) are widely employed as promising candidate carriers for drug delivery and as building blocks for stimuli‐responsive systems .…”

“…These integrated nanosystems provide new degrees of freedom to control the functionality of nanoparticles. [1c], [2b] In this context, the combination of hollow mesopores and fluorescence properties into one nanostructure has attracted great interest owing to the enormous potential of these materials in the construction of complex nanoplatforms and, ultimately, multifunctional materials . Different from conventional fluorescent dyes, aggregation‐induced emission (AIE) molecules possess characteristics that are opposite to those of aggregation‐caused quenching (ACQ) molecules and are an important and novel category of fluorogens that emit more efficiently in the aggregated state than in the dispersed state.…”

“…Different from conventional fluorescent dyes, aggregation‐induced emission (AIE) molecules possess characteristics that are opposite to those of aggregation‐caused quenching (ACQ) molecules and are an important and novel category of fluorogens that emit more efficiently in the aggregated state than in the dispersed state. [2b], Since Tang and his team reported on AIE compounds in 2001, the development of molecules exhibiting AIE has opened new opportunities for biological sensing and imaging applications, and a great many AIE‐based materials have been designed and investigated . Even so, their performances are severely limited by their poor water solubility in practical applications.…”

Immobilization of AIEgens into metal‐organic frameworks: Ligand design, emission behavior, and applications

“…Over the past few years, considerable efforts have been devoted to the design and synthesis of AIEgens‐MOFs and the exploration of their applications. In some review articles, AIEgens‐MOFs have been mentioned. For example, Tang et al reported a comprehensive AIE related review article, which contains AIEgens‐MOFs .…”

Investigation on Charge Carrier Recombination of Hybrid Organic–Inorganic Perovskites Doped with Aggregation‐Induced Emission Luminogen under High Photon Flux Excitation

“…Aggregation‐induced emission luminogens (AIE‐gens), a class of recently developed organic luminescence materials, are nearly nonemissive in dilute solution but show strong fluorescent emission in aggregated states . Due to this unique luminescence behavior together with the excellent film‐forming property, they have been successfully applied in biomedicine, chemosensors, and LEDs .…”