writer：Guo, L.; Xing, Y.; Wang, M.; Sun, Y.; Zhang, X.; Lin, B.; Yang, H.*
keywords：liquid crystal
source：期刊
specific source：Journal of Materials Chemistry C, 2019, 7, 4828-4837.
Issue time：2019年

The

newly emerging aggregation-induced emission (AIE) theory provides a striking

perspective to synthesize luminescent liquid crystal (LLC) materials with

outstanding solid-state luminescence properties which have exhibited prosperous

applications in semiconductor materials, liquid crystal displays and organic

light-emitting diodes. However, to date, all the known AIE-active LLC molecules

are based on very limited AIE fluorophores including cyanostilbene, tolane,

tetraphenylethene and metallomesogen cores, which greatly impede the wide

application of these materials, while on the other hand leave us plenty of

opportunities to develop novel AIE-based LLC materials. In this work, we design

and synthesize two categories of tetraphenylthiophene-core disk-like molecules,

TPTn bearing one

tetraphenylthiophene-core and eight peripheral alkoxyl chains, and TPTEn bearing one

tetraphenylthiophene-core and four 3,4,5-trialoxybenzoate groups, which can

form the square, rectangular or hexagonal columnar phases depending on the

mesogenic core structures and the chain length of the aliphatic tails.

Meanwhile, these tetraphenylthiophene-core LLC molecules exhibit obvious AIE

characteristics, the fluorescence emission intensity values measured in aggregated state were hundred times

higher than those values presented in benign solvents. Furthermore, these

AIE-active tetraphenylthiophene core LLC materials showed narrow band gap

energies and excellent gelation ability in appropriate solvents, which might

have potential applications as organic semiconductor materials and sensors.