Abstract
Fluorescent sensors that respond to environmental conditions (temperature, pressure, and pH) have attracted widespread attention in recent years. Generally, traditional solid-state fluorescent materials tend to suffer from aggregation-induced quenching (ACQ) and difficulty of film forming, limiting their extensive applications. Therefore, researchers are focusing more and more attention on fluorescent sensors with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) effects. Herein, the article reports an AIE molecule (TPEBZMZ) containing tetraphenylethylene (TPE) and benzimidazole fragments. The fluorescence properties of TPEBZMZ in solution and aggregation states have been investigated, and the luminescence performance and aggregation structures of solid-state TPEBZMZ after force and acid treatments have been explored. The results show obvious AIE and fluorescent sensing properties of TPEBZMZ, presenting force- and acid-induced discolorations. Moreover, the TPEBZMZ-based fluorescent nanofibrous film is fabricated by electrospinning the solution of TPEBZMZ blended with polylactic acid (PLA), which shows a good nanofiber film structure and exhibits reversible acid-induced discoloration property, even with only 0.5 wt% TPEBZMZ. This work provides a simple strategy to achieve stimulus-responsive fluorescent film.
Highlights
Fluorescent films composed of π-conjugated materials-based fluorescent sensors and membranous materials are promising sensor technology due to their real-time detection, easy fabrication, noninvasiveness detection, and mechanical stability and flexibility (Guan et al, 2015; Miao et al, 2016)
Due to the state-of-the-art aggregation-induced emission (AIE) functional unit, TPE, we proposed that the TPEBZMZ molecule can exhibit the AIE effect, which was firstly examined by the photoluminescence (PL) fluorescence emission spectra of TPEBZMZ/THF/H2O solutions with different water content
We speculate that the reason for the change in fluorescence intensity is because TPEBZMZ aggregation started with 80% of water content, and the size of aggregates increased gradually when the water fraction increased to 98%, leading to a remarkable light scattering phenomenon (Thomas et al, 2007)
Summary
Fluorescent films composed of π-conjugated materials-based fluorescent sensors and membranous materials are promising sensor technology due to their real-time detection, easy fabrication, noninvasiveness detection, and mechanical stability and flexibility (Guan et al, 2015; Miao et al, 2016). Li et al (2019) have developed an epoxy resin system functionalized with the typical AIE tetraphenylethylene (TPE) groups, forming nanofibrous films by electrospinning, and obtained temperature-sensitive fluorescent films probes. Yang et al (Yang et al, 2018) have reported specific composite nanofibrous films by electrospinning of AIE small molecules (oME-TPA) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and further studied its piezochromic properties related to sensitivities. Zhao et al (2017a) have grafted TPE derivatives and phloxine B onto electrospun nanofiber film, inducing the static quenching of phloxine B through protamine adsorption and combining them with the aggregation of TPE-based groups, promoting fluorescence emission of nanofiber, which realized effective monitoring of different concentrations of heparin. The TPE group renders the TPEBZMZ molecule AIE property, and the structure of the benzimidazole unit will offer the potential of acid-induced discoloration. TPEBZMZ shows an obvious AIE phenomenon and fluorescent sensing properties of force- and acid-induced discolorations. This work provides a simple strategy to prepare fluorescent sensing film
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