2024/11/14 by Feng Liu, Junkai Liu, Junyi Gong +10 · 1 voice
Engineering · Materials Science · #Luminescence and Fluorescent Materials #Nanoplatforms for cancer theranostics #Organic Light-Emitting Diodes Research
paper · pdf · doi:10.1002/smo.20240039
openalex publication_date 2024/11/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Donor-acceptor (D-A) compounds are particularly important in optoelectronic and biological applications. However, they are normally synthesized in the presence of transition metal catalysts. Herein, we report a metal-free method by a complex-mediated nucleophilic aromatic substitution of aryl nitriles with amines. The method can lead to rich D-A type aggregation-induced emission luminogens (AIEgens) with tunable properties. They emit from deep-blue to yellow-green and possess high photoluminescence quantum yields up to 70.5% in the aggregate state. Interestingly, the suppression of intramolecular flapping is proved to play an indispensable role in the AIE behavior, which is different from the mechanism met in other AIEgens. Moreover, the biocompatible AIEgens possess specific staining of lipid droplets in HeLa cells and the superiority of identifying fatty liver over traditional Oil Red O staining is exhibited.