Assembly and disassembly activity of two AIEE model compounds and its potential application.

Aggregation-induced emission (AIE) has received great attention. In this paper, Cu 2+ induced self-assembly and H 2 S induced disassembly of two aggregation–induced emission enhancement (AIEE) compounds were reported in this paper. Two salicylaldehyde azine Schiff base were synthesized and characterized. It is found that 1 and 2 are AIEE active molecular both in aqueous solution and crystal state with strong yellow fluorescence. Theirs fluorescence can be selectively quenched in the presence of Cu 2+ ions with the formation of self-assembly system [ 1-Cu 2+ ] n . The interaction mechanism has been researched by multiple means. Depending on this reaction, energy changes (ΔG) from 1 to [ 1-Cu 2+ ] n was also estimated by Scatchard formula. Moreover, the quenching fluorescence was further restored by H 2 S both in tube and live cells along with the releasing of AIEE molecular 1 . That is, a reversible process between AIEE, self-assembly and disaggregation can be found in the model compound. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]