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As one kind of important disinfectant and reactive oxygen species (ROS), hypochlorite (ClO - ), plays vital roles in both water treatment and cell homeostasis. In this work, by decorating a series of groups with different electron donating and withdrawing properties on tetraphenylethene (TPE), four aggregation-induced emission (AIE)-based fluorescent probes containing C˭C double bonds as the potential reaction sites named Probe A, B, C and D were constructed, and their sensing performance for ClO - was systematically studied. The results showed that the substituents can not only effectively tune the photophysical properties of the probes, but also make a significant impact on their sensing performance for ClO - . Combined with the theoretical calculation results, it can be inferred that the reactivity of the probes for ClO - can be greatly enhanced with the increase of electron cloud density on the C˭C double bonds by the introduction of strong electron-donating group (EDG) and electron-withdrawing group (EWG) adjacent to the double bonds. Finally, the best performing Probe D was selected and then successfully applied to ClO - detection in real water samples and live cell imaging., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)