Inorganic‐Based Aggregation‐Induced Luminescent Materials: Recent Advances and Perspectives

Abstract

Luminogens with aggregation‐induced emission properties (AIEgens), as a novel and attractive fluorescent molecule, have been used in various fields, such as detection, imaging, and disease treatment, which can overcome the traditional aggregation‐caused quenching of organic fluorescent molecules. Nevertheless, AIEgens still have the problems of water solubility and fluorescence stability in practical applications. Aiming for improving the AIEgens’ performance and promoting the development of diverse applications of AIEgens, it is an available strategy to bind AIEgens to those inorganic materials with abundant variety, easy synthesis, and a unique rigid pore structure. The constructed inorganic‐based AIE materials not only inherit the unique luminescence characteristics of AIEgens, but also retain the biocompatibility and degradability of inorganic materials, endowing AIEgens with more attractive versatility. Herein, the up‐to‐date researches of several representative inorganic‐based AIE materials are introduced, with emphasis on their structure design, synthesis strategy, regulation of fluorescence properties of AIE, and their application in the biological field. Finally, the current situation, challenges, and future development potential of inorganic‐based AIE materials are discussed and prospected.

One-Pot Synthesis of Silicon Quantum Dots-Based Fluorescent Nanomaterial and Its Application

“…This suggests that the remarkable fluorescence emission is only manifested when Si QDs are confined within DMSNs. This phenomenon shares similarities with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) materials, , allowing SiQDs@DMSNs to emit fluorescence in both liquid and solid states. These characteristics endow SiQDs@DMSNs with promise for further applications in the fields of in vitro detection of disease markers, in vivo imaging, fingerprint identification and anticounterfeit labels, etc.…”

Furoic Acid-Capped LaF3:Tb Nanoparticles for Al3+ Detection Based on Aggregation-Induced Luminescence Enhancement

“…Such changes include (a) protection against quenching of the excited-state energy of furoic acid via a nonradiative pathway due to solvent interactions, 60 (b) a decrease in the nonradiative energy loss and an increase in the radiative energy transfer due to the restriction of the ligand molecular rotation, 61 (c) an increase in the UV radiation absorption of the ligand molecules (followed by the additional energy transfer efficiency between the ligand molecules and the Tb 3+ ions doped in the NCs), 62 and (d) stabilization of the energy level of the Tb 3+ ion's excited state for a longer time (which promotes radiative emission over nonradiative emission of Tb 3+ ions). 62 The above-mentioned possibilities synergistically contributed to increasing the overall Tb 3+ luminescence emission followed by FA → Tb 3+ energy transfer after ligand sensitization in the aggregation form of FA-LaF 3 :Tb 3+ NCs. However, after reaching a certain concentration of Al 3+ ions, together with the above changes, aggregation also generates the nonradiative emission of ligands and Tb 3+ ions.…”