Bromine substituent position of tetraphenylethylene-based luminogens effect on enhanced AIE and reversible mechanofluorochromic properties by halogen bonding

The halogen atoms have been exploited for designing highly efficient aggregation-induced emission (AIE) materials in recent years, whereas the development of halogenated AIEgen has been greatly limited by the unclear inherent mechanism. In this paper, a series of 1,1,2,2-tetrakis (4-(phenyl ethynyl) phenyl) ethene (TPPE) derivatives with bromine (Br) substituents in different positions were synthesized and their unique photophysical behaviors based on the anti-heavy atom effect were investigated. The brominated TPPE derivatives possessed higher fluorescence quantum yield (ФF) than that of TPPE, resulting from the formation of intermolecular Br-based bonds. Single crystal analysis and theoretical calculations revealed that changing the positions of the Br substituents could induce the formation of different intermolecular interactions. The Br-based bonds efficiently restricted the intermolecular motion, in which the Br⋯Br bond made a decisive factor in determining the highly efficient fluorescence. TPPE derivatives displayed obvious mechanofluorochromic (MFC) properties. PXRD and SEM results demonstrated that the crystal-to-amorphous transition attributed to the reversibility of MFC properties. This work provides a straightforward and practical method to achieve highly efficient AIE-active materials with higher contrast MFC properties via introducing the halogen atoms. [Display omitted] •Four simple TPPE derivatives with aggregation-induced emission characteristics were designed and synthesized.•Fluorescence enhancement by simple introduction of bromine substituents.•Intermolecular halogen bonds increased the contrast of mechanofluorochromic.•m-BrTPPE displayed much higher fluorescence quantum yields.