Traditional organic chromophores and polymers with disc-like, coplanar geometry tend to be highly emissive in the dilute solutions but become weakly luminescent in the concentrated solution and solid states. On the contrast, conventional chromophores (such as silole) with non-coplanar structure exhibit strong fluorescence in the concentrated states due to the aggregation-induced emission (AIE) or AIE enhancement (AIEE) effect originated from the restricted intramolecular rotation (RIR) inherent from the chemical structures of the luminescent materials. To verify the influence of RIR on the AIEE properties, four approaches were attempted in this research. First, copolymers PFN with alternative fluorene-naphthol unit was prepared through facile Suzuki coupling and was characterized to have AIEE properties due to the hydrogen-bond (H-bond) interactions among the inherent hydroxyl (OH) groups of the naphthol units. The H-bond interactions of PFN copolymer effectively restrict the molecular rotations and experimental variables (such as increasing solution concentration, introducing non-solvent water to solution, cooling and applying shearing forces during solvent evaporation stage etc.) effective in promoting the H-bond interactions result in the emission enhancement. Second, the fluorescent PFN was blended with poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVR) through facile hydrogen-bond (H-bond) interactions. By the effective H-bond interactions between the OH groups of PFN and the carbonyl functions of PVR. The molecular rotations of PFN can be effectively locked by large amounts of carbonyl groups in PVR. With the efficient H-bond interactions, the PFN/PVR blend with the low content (2.33 wt%) of fluorescent PFN component actually has a high quantum efficiency of 0.93, comparatively higher than other blends containing higher fluorescent PFN. Third, novel vinyl polymer PTP with pendant AIE-effective tetraphenylthiophene (TP) group was prepared through radical polymerization. The resultant PTP polymer exhibits two discernible emission bands corresponding to monomer and aggregate emissions, respectively. The relative monomer to aggregate emission intensity of the PTP polymer in either the solution or the solid state depends strongly on the extent of aggregations. Increasing solution concentration results in the increasing extent of aggregation and the increasing aggregate/monomer emission ratio and also, the large emission enhancement due to the AIEE effect. Finally, the TP-derived ammonium (TP-NH3+) cations are complexed with poly(sodium vinylsulfonate) (PSV) polyanion to generate ionic PSV-TP(x/y) systems with long-range electrostatic interactions between the cationic ammonium of TP-NH3+ and the polyanion of PSV. The fluorophoric TP units are associated with each other to form large aggregate domains stabilized by the long-range interactions. Introduction of water into dilute solution of PSV-TP in THF resulted in self-aggregated nanoparticles and the accompanied emission enhancement due to AIEE effect. Introduction of excess PSV polyanions promoted the self-aggregation of the TP fluorophores and resulted in the fluorescence enhancement. Nevertheless, addition of NaCl electrolytes causes the dissociations of the TP aggregates and the corresponding emission reduction. By controlling the additive, the blended PSV-TP film containing excess PSV has a high quantum yield of £XF = 0.83. In addition, the ionic PSV-TP complex film possesses high spectral stability without spectral variations after annealing at a high temperature of 270 oC.

About half a century ago, Főrster and Kasper discovered that traditional organic chromophore such as pyrene was weakened with an increase in its solution concentration. It was soon recognized that this was a general phenomenon for many aromatic compounds. This concentration-quenching effect was found to be caused by the formation of sandwich-shaped (disc-like) excimers and exciplexes aided by the collisional interactions between the aromatic molecules in the excited and ground states. In 2001, Tang¡¦group discovered such a system, in which luminogen aggregation played a constructive, instead of a destructive, role in the light-emitting process: a series of silole molecules were found to be non-luminescent in the solution state but emissive in the aggregated state. They coined the term ¡¥¡¥aggregation-induced emission¡¦¡¦ (AIE) or ¡§AIE enhancement¡¨ (AIEE) for this novel phenomenon which originated from the restricted intramolecular rotation (RIR) inherent from the chemical structures of the luminescent materials. To verify the effect of molecular structure on the AIE properties of organic and polymeric materials, four approaches were attempted in this research. (I) Aggregation-Induced Emission in Tetraphenylthiophene-Derived Organic Molecules and Vinyl Polymer Organic molecules of tetraphenylthiophene (TP) and the derived model compound of TP-Qu and vinyl polymer of PS-Qu with the pendant group of TP-Qu were prepared and characterized to identify their photoluminescent responses toward the effect of AIE. During aggregate formation, the corresponding TP solutions greatly gained the emission intensity. In contrast, TP-Qu and PS-Qu in isolated or aggregated states emitted strongly with nearly the same emission intensity. RIR is the key factor deciding the AIE effect in different states. With four small phenyl rotors around the central thiophene stator, the RIR of the TP molecules in dilute solution is low but increases upon aggregate formations. In contrast, the bulky C-2 quinoline rotor of the TP-Qu molecule enhances the RIR in isolated state. With the inherent TP-Qu pendant groups, the emissive behavior of vinyl polymer PS-Qu is similar to the TP-Qu molecule. (II) Aggregation-Induced Emission Enhancement of Diblock Copolymer Containing Tetraphenylthiophene-Quinoline Pendant Fluorphores by Selective Solvent Pairs In this study, diblock copolymer of PSQu-PBS containing 25 mol% of fluorescent PSQu segments was synthesized and its aggregation-induced emission enhancement (AIEE) behavior was characterized and compared to PSQu homopolymer with 100 mol% of fluorescent units. With fewer (25 %) fluorescent units, solutions of diblock PSQu-PBS copolymer actually have higher (or comparable) emission intensities than the homopolymer PSQu solutions. Solutions of PSQu-PBS in THF/H2O of varied compositions emit essentially with the same intensity but in contrast, emissions of PSQu-PBS in THF/hexane increase with the increasing hexane content. Copolymer micelles formed in THF/hexane mixtures are supposed to have higher extent of aggregation, leading to more pronounced AIEE effect than micelles formed in THF/H2O. (III) Tetraphenylthiophene-Functionalized Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide): Probing LCST with Aggregation-Induced Emission A hydrophobic TP center with novel AIE property was chemically linked to two poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) chains to obtain thermoresponsive polymers to study the relationships between the lower critical solution transitions (LCSTs) and the AIE-operative fluorenscence emission. Three ethynyl-terminated PNIPAMs with different molecular weights were synthesized via controlled atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) using ethynyl-functionalized initiator. The PNIPAMs were then coupled with diazide-funtionalized TP (TPN3) via click reaction to obtain the desired TP-embedded polymers of Px (x = 1, 2, and 3). All three polymers show AIE-property from their solution fluorescence behavior in THF/hexane mixtures. In the aqueous solution, the TP-center served as a fluorogenic probe that reveals the LCSTs of polymers and its relation to the degree of TP labeling in terms of polymer concentration. The thermoresponsiveness of Px was demonstrated by the complete emission quench when heated at temperatures above LCST. Dissociation of the TP aggregates above LCST is responsible for the emission quench. (IV) Influence of Molecular Weight on the Aggregation-Induced Emission of Vinyl Polymers Containing the Fluorescent 2,4,6-Triphenylpyridine Pendant Groups Molecular weight effect on the AIEE property of vinyl polymers containing fluorescent 2,4,6-triphenylpyridine (TPP) pendant groups was evaluated in the fourth topic. The high and low Mw vinyl polymers of PDMPS¡VL and ¡VH were prepared through Click chemistry between azide¡VTPP derivative and acetylene¡Vfunctionalized polystyrenes. Solutions of the low Mw PDMPS¡VL exhibited the normal AIEE effect with continuous emission gains with increasing extent of aggregation upon nonsolvent inclusion. On the contrast, the high Mw PDMPS¡VH solutions emitted with constant intensity on all solutions with different extent of aggregation. Despite the varied solution behavior, the solid PDMPS-L and ¡VH films are all strong deep-blue emitter with high quantum yields of 84 and 82.5%, respectively. The emission behavior was explained by the conformational difference between the PDMPS¡VL and ¡VH chains, which were approached by computer simulation in this topic.