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Solar‐driven interfacial evaporation is a promising technology for desalination. The photothermal conversion materials are at the core and play a key role in this field. Design of photothermal conversion materials based on organic dyes for desalination is still a challenge due to lack of efficient guiding strategy. Herein, a new D (donor)‐A (acceptor) type conjugated tetraphenylpyrazine (TPP) luminophore (namely TPP‐2IND) was prepared as a photothermal conversion molecule. It exhibited a broad absorption spectrum and strong π–π stacking in the solid state, resulting in efficient sunlight harvesting and boosting nonradiative decay. TPP‐2IND powder exhibited high photothermal efficiency upon 660 nm laser irradiation (0.9 W cm−2), and the surface temperature can reach to 200°C. Then, an interfacial heating system based on TPP‐2IND is established successfully. The water evaporation rate and the solar‐driven water evaporation efficiency were evaluated up to 1.04 kg m−2 h−1 and 65.8% under 1 sunlight, respectively. Thus, this novel solar‐driven heating system shows high potential for desalination and stimulates the development of advanced photothermal conversion materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The search for deep-blue dyes with high luminescence efficiency in the aggregate state and high brightness is particularly important in optoelectronic application. Herein, based on a typical aggregation-induced emission (AIE) unit of tetraphenylpyrazine (TPP), four dyes were prepared by connecting it with chiral binaphthyl units via an acetylenic bond. The use of the TPP unit is critical to aggregation-enhanced emission (AEE) and deep-blue emission, whereas the merging of the binaphthyl unit is beneficial for molecular conjugation to remarkably improve absorption, photoluminescence (PL) quantum efficiency and brightness. Besides, the binaphthyl unit can serve as an axially chiral source to endow the deep-blue dyes with chirality. It was revealed that attaching a longer alkoxy chain to the dyes facilitates the formation of helical self-assemblies determined by chiral transfer but leads to an aggregation-caused emission (ACQ) effect. Moreover, using these deep-blue dyes as energy donors for energy delivery, other emissions and pure white light emission can be generated effectively via an energy transfer process based on a rational mixture of donors and acceptors in PMMA films. The device fabricated by coating this film onto a blue LED also emitted distinct and stable white light. This work provides a flexible way to design high-performance blue materials for potential applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hypochlorite (ClO−), as a kind of essential reactive oxygen species, plays a crucial role in vitro and in vivo. Here, a ratiometric fluorescent probe (TPAM) was designed and constructed for sensing ClO− based on substituted triphenylamine and malononitrile, which exhibited obvious colour transfer from orange to colourless under daylight accompanied by noticeable fluorescence change from red to green in response to ClO−. TPAM could effectively monitor ClO− with the merits of fast response, excellent selectivity, high sensitivity and a low detection limit of 0.1014 μM. 1H NMR, mass spectra and theoretical calculations proved that ClO− caused the oxidation of the carbon–carbon double bond in TPAM, resulting in compound 1 and marked changes in colour and fluorescence. In addition, TPAM was utilized for imaging ClO− in living cells successfully with good photostability and biocompatibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The detection of nitrophenolic explosives is important in counterterrorism and environmental protection, but it is still a challenge to identify the nitroaromatic compounds among those with a similar structure. Herein, a simple tetraphenylethene (TPE) derivative with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristics was synthesized and used as a fluorescent sensor for the detection of nitrophenolic explosives (2, 4, 6-trinitrophenol, TNP and 2, 4-dinitrophenol, DNP) in water solution and in a solid state with a high selectivity. Meanwhile, it was found that only hydroxyl containing nitrophenolic explosives caused obvious fluorescence quenching. The sensing mechanism was investigated by using fluorescence titration and 1H NMR spectra. This simple AIE-active probe can potentially be applied to the construction of portable detection devices for explosives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Novel chiral AIEgens bearing optically pure amino groups were synthesized and showed excellent discrimination for a series of chiral acidic compounds and amino acids. Interestingly, after supramolecular assembly with 4-sulfocalix[4]arene, the obtained complexes showed enhanced enantioselectivity for chiral acids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hypochlorite (ClO - ), as a kind of essential reactive oxygen species, plays a crucial role in vitro and in vivo. Here, a ratiometric fluorescent probe (TPAM) was designed and constructed for sensing ClO - based on substituted triphenylamine and malononitrile, which exhibited obvious colour transfer from orange to colourless under daylight accompanied by noticeable fluorescence change from red to green in response to ClO - . TPAM could effectively monitor ClO - with the merits of fast response, excellent selectivity, high sensitivity and a low detection limit of 0.1014 μM. 1 H NMR, mass spectra and theoretical calculations proved that ClO - caused the oxidation of the carbon-carbon double bond in TPAM, resulting in compound 1 and marked changes in colour and fluorescence. In addition, TPAM was utilized for imaging ClO - in living cells successfully with good photostability and biocompatibility., (© 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)