Tuning the aggregation-induced emission behavior of novel luminescence probes for DNP and Fe3+ sensing by molecular stacking

Aggregation-induced emission (AIE) has been widely recognized as the key to solving the aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) effect from the source. As the stacking states of AIE luminogens in the solid state are considered as the key of its performance, we constructed a series of novel biscarbazole-type molecules with different functional groups, and explored the effect of molecular stacking on the AIE phenomenon. With single crystal analysis and spectroscopic characterizations, we confirmed that the functional groups have significant effects on the molecular stacking in the solid state and AIE behaviors. Significantly, the synthetic 2,5-bis(3-(9H-carbazol-9-yl)propoxy)terephthalaldehyde (TPAK) molecule has been successfully used for the rapid detection of DNP (2,4-dinitrophenol) and Fe3+.