Imine organic cages derived from tetraphenylethylene dialdehydes exhibiting aggregation-induced emission and explosives detection.

Sensitive detection of explosives has always been a frontier research for scientists. In this work, two [3 + 2] imine organic cages (1 and 2) stemmed from distinct TPE-based dialdehydes (TPE-2CHO/TPE-2PCHO) and common tri(2-aminoethyl)amine were obtained. Both of them are fluorescence silence in solution and high-efficient AIE could be observed, which is different from all known TPE-based organic cages with AIEE properties. Because of the cage skeleton encircled by multiple benzene rings, the two cages can effectively detect various explosives including nitrobenzene, 2-nitrotoluene, 3-nitrotoluene, 4-nitrotoluene and 2,6-dinitrotoluene both in solution and in the solid state, in which cage 1 displays higher detection ability due to its nine encircling benzene donors [Display omitted] • Partial benzene ring modified TPE-based dialdehydes were used to construct imine organic cages. • Cages 1 and 2 show typical AIE characteristics. • The two cages can effectively detect various explosives both in water phase and solid state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]