An Efficient Approach to Pyrene‐based Aggregation‐induced Emission Luminogens

To suppress the fluorescence quenching of pyrene in the aggregation state, this article presents a facile strategy for the construction of pyrene-based aggregation-induced emission luminogens (AIEgens) via decorating the pyrene core with benzophenone units at the 1-, 2- or 2,7-positions. This set of pyrene-based compounds 1-3 displayed a weak deep blue fluorescence in solution, but an enhanced excimer emission with lambda(em max) of 426-436 nm in the aggregation state. Interestingly, unlike reported benzophenone derivatives, this series of compounds did not exhibit thermally activated delayed fluorescence/ phosphorescent properties.