(J. Mater. Chem. C) Luminescent Liquid Crystals Bearing Aggregation-Induced Emission Active Tetraphenylthiophene Fluorophore
writer：Guo, L.; Xing, Y.; Wang, M.; Sun, Y.; Zhang, X.; Lin, B.; Yang, H.*
keywords：liquid crystal
source：期刊
specific source：Journal of Materials Chemistry C, 2019, 7, 4828-4837.
Issue time：2019年
The
newly emerging aggregation-induced emission (AIE) theory provides a striking
perspective to synthesize luminescent liquid crystal (LLC) materials with
outstanding solid-state luminescence properties which have exhibited prosperous
applications in semiconductor materials, liquid crystal displays and organic
light-emitting diodes. However, to date, all the known AIE-active LLC molecules
are based on very limited AIE fluorophores including cyanostilbene, tolane,
tetraphenylethene and metallomesogen cores, which greatly impede the wide
application of these materials, while on the other hand leave us plenty of
opportunities to develop novel AIE-based LLC materials. In this work, we design
and synthesize two categories of tetraphenylthiophene-core disk-like molecules,
TPTn bearing one
tetraphenylthiophene-core and eight peripheral alkoxyl chains, and TPTEn bearing one
tetraphenylthiophene-core and four 3,4,5-trialoxybenzoate groups, which can
form the square, rectangular or hexagonal columnar phases depending on the
mesogenic core structures and the chain length of the aliphatic tails.
Meanwhile, these tetraphenylthiophene-core LLC molecules exhibit obvious AIE
characteristics, the fluorescence emission intensity values measured in aggregated state were hundred times
higher than those values presented in benign solvents. Furthermore, these
AIE-active tetraphenylthiophene core LLC materials showed narrow band gap
energies and excellent gelation ability in appropriate solvents, which might
have potential applications as organic semiconductor materials and sensors.