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As a type of important non-covalent interactions that can efficiently prohibit π-π interaction to avoid quenching of luminescence, anion-π interactions are receiving growing attention for the fabrication of aggregation-induced emission luminogens (AIEgens) since 2017. The obtained anion-π type AIEgens can be applied in the fields of wash-free bioimaging and long-term tracking of subcellular organelle, photodynamic anti-cancer and anti-bacterial therapy due to their good water solubility, superior photostability and excellent reactive oxygen species generation ability. Moreover, anion-π type AIEgens were also further constructed for room temperature phosphorescence by taking advantages of the heavy-atom participated anion-π interactions. This concept article provides a brief summary of this field, mainly focusing on the design strategy, photophysical properties and applications of anion-π type AIEgens., (© 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Nonradiative decay invariably competes with radiative decay during the deexcitation process of matter. In the community of luminescence research, nonradiative decay has been deemed less attractive than radiative decay. However, all things in their being are good for something and so is nonradiative decay. As the molecular motion-facilitated nonradiative decay (MMFND) effect is inevitable in photophysical processes, it provides a new avenue to convert the harvested light energy into exploitable forms by harnessing molecular motion. In many cases, active molecular motion enables thermal deactivation from excited states. In this Minireview, recent advances in photothermal and photoacoustic systems with MMFND character are summarized. We believe that this presentation of the rational engineering of molecular motion for efficient photothermal generation will deepen the understanding of the relationship between molecular motion and nonradiative decay and navigate people to rethink the positive aspects of nonradiative decay for the establishment of new light-controllable techniques., (© 2022 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Schiff bases are a crucial component in various functional materials but often exhibit non‐emissive behavior which significantly limits their potential applications as luminescent materials. However, traditional approaches to convert them into aggregate emitters often require intricate molecular design, tedious synthesis, and significant time and resource consumption. Herein, we present a cocrystallization‐induced emission strategy that can transform non‐emissive (hetero)aryl‐substituted Schiff bases into green‐yellow to yellow aggregate emitters via even simple grinding of a mixture of Schiff bases and 1,2,4,5‐tetracyanobenzene (TCB) mixtures. The combined experimental and theoretical analysis revealed that the cocrystallization inhibits the C=N isomerization and promotes face‐to‐face π–π interaction, which restricts access to both the dark state and canonical intersection to ultimately induce emission. Furthermore, the induced emission enables the observation of solid‐state molecular diffusion through fluorescence signals, advancing white light emission diodes, and notably, solution‐processed organic light‐emitting diodes based on cocrystal for the first time. This study not only highlights the potential of developing new C=N structural motifs for AIEgens but also could boost advancements in related structure motifs like C=C and N=N. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pathogenic bacteria infections, especially multidrug resistant bacteria infections have aroused worldwide attention due to their severe threats to human beings. Thus, the development of highly effective antibacterial reagents is very important. However, the design of antimicrobials is still quite challenging for the lack of a universal design strategy. Here, a synergistic manipulation strategy of dipole‐dipole and anion‐π+ interaction is proposed for constructing highly efficient antimicrobials with aggregation‐induced emission (AIE) feature. Firstly, four anion‐π+‐type AIE luminogens were designed and synthesized. Due to the electron‐donating and hydrophilic characteristic of methoxy groups, 3MOTPO containing three methoxy groups showed the largest dipole moment (5.06 Debye) and dual anion‐π+ interactions in the solid state. Driven by both dipole‐dipole and anion‐π+ interactions, 3MOTPO showed the strongest bacterial binding ability and the best antibacterial activities (MIC90=3.76 μM). The work offers a deep insight into the rational design of highly efficient antimicrobials for luminescence‐guided antibacterial study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]