Using the isotope effect to probe an aggregation induced emission mechanism: theoretical prediction and experimental validation.

ABSTRACT: Aggregation-induced emission (AIE) has become a hot topic for a variety of potential applications, but the understanding of its working mechanism is still under scrutiny. Herein, we proposed the use of the isotope effect (IE) to identify the AIE mechanism: under the restriction of an internal motion mechanism, the IE is pronouncedly different in excited-state decay rates when contrasting AIE luminogens (AIEgens) and non-AIEgens in theoretical calculations. For the complete deuteration of AIEgens, the IE of nonradiative decay rate in solution (<-10%) is much weaker than that (-65% to -95%) in aggregate, because the former stems from the overall results of competitive vibronic coupling and the severe mixing of low-frequency modes while the latter mainly comes from the vibronic coupling only.

SUBMITTER: Zhang T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6022082 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature