Dramatic emission enhancement of aggregation-induced emission luminogens by dynamic metal coordination bonds and the anti-heavy-atom effect

Restriction of intramolecular motions of AIEgens is greatly intensified by introducing dynamic metal coordination bonds to achieve dramatic fluorescence enhancement, which provides a simple and effective way to dramatically improve the emission efficiency of AIEgens. AIEgen-based metal complexes have an abnormal anti-heavy-atom effect, which contributes to their high emission efficiencies without changing their emission nature. Dynamic metal coordination bond is used to intensify the restriction of intramolecular motions and to dramatically enhance the emission efficiencies of AIEgens, and the anti-heavy-atom effect is equally applicable to metal-AIEgen complexes.