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This review provides a comprehensive exploration of organic cocrystal engineering, focusing on the mechanism of cocrystal formation, stacking modes, driving forces behind cocrystal synthesis, innovative growth techniques, and the multifunctional properties of organic cocrystals, which offers guidelines for engineering high-performance molecular materials and expanding the applications of organic cocrystals in optoelectronic, photothermal, and energy storage and conversion fields.

Green emitting (TEP)₂Cu₂Br₄ and orange emitting (TEP)₂Cu₄Br₆ are reported. Due to their photoluminescence efficiencies approaching 100%, these materials are promising for solid-state lighting, and X- and γ-rays scintillation applications. Furthermore, (TEP)₂Cu₂Br₄ and (TEP)₂Cu₄Br₆ are sensitive to external stimuli, which enables their use in high-level anti-counterfeiting and information storage applications.

This study explores Au···I coinage bonds in an aggregation-induced emission (AIE)-active Au(I) complex, revealing multiswitchable luminescence behavior and solid-state molecular motion. The findings highlight the potential of these bonds in enhancing photoluminescence and developing smart, stimuli-responsive materials.

Dynamic color-tunable ultra-long room temperature phosphorescence (URTP) polymers with the ultra-long afterglow of over 6 s, photo-chromism, and water-stimuli response are exploited by integrating multicolor phosphorescence functional block and photo-chromic functional block into polyvinyl alcohol matrix. Also, their dynamic multilevel anti-counterfeiting applications are demonstrated. These results pave the way to develop smarter multifunctional URTP materials for anti-counterfeiting and optical sensing.

Responsive enaminitrile molecular switches showing tunable turn-on fluorescence upon switching and aggregation are presented. The switches were emissive over the visible color range and responsive aggregation-induced emission could be recorded. When applied as solid-state chemosensors, the switches could be used to detect acidic and basic vapors while displaying “off-on-off”.

The RVRR peptide sequence of the AuNR@Peptide probe is cleaved by furin, triggering the aggregation of gold nanorods (AuNRs) into larger aggregates. This results in “Turn-On” near-infrared-II photoacoustic signals and enhanced tumor retention by preventing migration and backflow of AuNRs, thus achieving activatable imaging-guided sensitizing radiotherapy.

Spatiotemporal responsive microspheres are an innovative drug delivery system possessing exceptional spatiotemporal responsiveness behaviors and thus achieving two different drug release profiles. Such microspheres can significantly reduce tumor cell viability and enhance the efficiency in treating gastric cancer, indicating a promising stratagem in the field of drug delivery and tumor therapy.

Here, a smart aggregate (NPs-aPD-1/HbO₂/ATO) comprised of PD-1 antibody (aPD-1), hemoglobin (Hb), atovaquone (ATO) and an ROS-responsive cross-linker is presented. Tumor ROS disrupts the linkers, releasing Hb and ATO to alleviate hypoxia via an open-source and reduce-expenditure strategy, respectively, and assisting the released aPD-1 to fight against the cancer. This approach overcomes the side effects of systemic administration of the components and profoundly advances cancer immunotherapy.

This review summarizes the recent progress of aggregation-based analytical chemistry in POC nanosensors. After reviewing the aggregation-induced “forces” for nanoprobes, the aggregation-induced signal transductions and POC nanosensors are discussed. Subsequently, the application of aggregation-based analytical chemistry-driven POC nanosensors in medicine, food, and environment are reviewed. This review is expected to provide new insights into the fabrication of POC nanosensors through aggregation-based analytical chemistry and promote the development of aggregation-based analytical chemistry with high speed.

Designing sensors for detecting real nerve agents presents significant challenges, particularly in achieving high sensitivity and selectivity. This study employs film-based fluorescent sensors that leverage the high environmental sensitivity of fluorescent films. Utilizing an independently designed sensing platform, we achieve highly sensitive and selective detection of the nerve agent sarin. Additionally, we distinguish acidic interfering gases through sensing kinetics curves.

A buckybowl-based luminophore with non-uniform electrostatic potential distributions was utilized for dynamic modulation of the triplet exciton transition processes, which endowed wide-range afterglow in different external hosts.

Unusual phosphorescence was identified from boric acid, but was questioned as impurity-induced result. Here, we proposed a protocol to verify the origin of such phosphorescence, namely from weak through-space conjugation rather than impurity.

Supramolecular photoresponsive polyurethane (CD-Azo-PU) with movable crosslinks between azobenzene (Azo) and γ-cyclodextrins (CD) exhibits rapid photoresponsive actuation irradiated by UV light (λ = 365 nm). The films of CD-Azo-PU bend towards the light source. Photostimuli increase crystallinity via the formation of hydrogen-bond driven by the dissociation of the CD/Azo complexes.

Here, we show a general method for precisely capturing specific Aβ oligomers using light-controlled molecular tweezers (LMTs), which can be activated to form a tweezer-like cis configuration that preferentially binds to specific oligomers matching the space of the tweezers via multivalent interactions of KLVFF motifs.

Anatase-free hierarchical TS-1 zeolites with high catalytic performance for olefins are prepared by an aromatic-compounds mediated synthesis method. The fabricated process is simple and avoids post-treatment. The state of Ti species and mesopore width are regulated by aromatic compounds, which improves the accessibility of substrates to active sites and promotes the transfer of products.

Aggregation-induced emission active tetraphenylethylene-conjugated porphyrin TPE-ZnPF produces a state-of-the-art photocatalytic hydrogen evolution rate (ηH₂) of 56.20 mmol g^‒1 h^‒1 which is much higher than that of porphyrin Ph-ZnPF (0.60 mmol g^‒1 h^‒1) possessing aggregation caused-quenching.

MoSe₂/rGO heterostructure provides activated edge sites for electrochemical reactions. The interfacial covalent bond between MoSe₂ and rGO improves stability and lowers the overpotential, leading to improved HER and OER with high current density for water splitting. The electrocatalyst is stable for over 70 h, making it a promising and cost-effective option for hydrogen fuel production.

The present work enlightens the readers with coherent knowledge of the mechanism of hydrogen evolution reaction on hydrogenase structure Fe₇S₈/C. The developed iron-sulfide cluster surrounded by a carbon matrix acts as an efficient electrocatalyst for electrochemical water splitting under a wide pH range. The low overpotential of the electrocatalyst (45.9 mV under neutral pH) makes it a promising and cost-effective option for hydrogen fuel production.

Hydrophilic Au₂₅SR₁₈ (SR = thiolate) exhibits photoacoustic (PA) signal intensity enhancement under weakly polar solvent induces aggregation, with the PA intensity and PA conversion efficiency highly dependent on the aggregation degree, while the aggregation-enhanced PA intensity (AEPA) positively correlates to the protected ligands. Further experiments show that the increased energy of AEPA originates from the aggregation inhibiting the intermolecular energy transfer from excited Au NCs to their surrounding medium molecules, rather than restricting radiative relaxations.

This paper provided a paradigm of an integrated chain to realize, design, synthesize, analyze, tune and utilize a system with anti-Kasha behavior. Anti-Kasha system in this work displayed not only academic and theoretical uniqueness, but also usefulness in cell-imaging with high contrast. Our work will make the anti-Kasha system more practical than theoretical, to unleash the power of infinite excited states.

Incorporating organic phosphors to silica nanoparticles by covalent bonds shows high phosphorescence quantum yields (up to 22%) and long lifetimes (up to 3.5 ms) in aqueous phase. The dual fluorescence/phosphorescence of the monochromophore within the porous SiNPs successfully realized ratiometric hypoxia detection with ultrasensitivity (K_SV = 449.3 bar⁻¹).

Upon pressing the precipitates formed with surfactants and oppositely charged polyelectrolytes, scaling up fabrication of macroscopic supramolecular films is possible. The hydrophobic mesophases composed of surfactant chains will greatly retard water diffusion inside the film, so that the film will bend upward automatically in touch with moisture environment. This can be utilized to create portable power-free skin moisture sensor.

A novel method based on absolute aggregation-caused quenching (aACQ) probes is reported for critical micelle concentration (CMC) determination. These probes show absolutely no emission before micellization owing to molecular π–π stacking, while abruptly emit high and stable fluorescence upon micellization. Fast fluorescence “off/on” switching upon micellization/demicellization and background-free property make them outperform common probes for accurate and sensitive determination of ultralow CMCs.

An AIEgen-graphene oxide (GO) nanocomposite-based assay is designed for rapid detection of SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acids. The sensing mechanism is based on two-stage fluorescence signal recovery due to fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) effect by detaching AIEgen from GO surface and restricted intramolecular rotation (RIR) effect by formation of nucleic acid duplexes.

A newly designed AIEgen-based fluorescent film sensor is developed and used successfully, for the first time, to detect gaseous 3-hydroxy-2-butanone, a biomarker of Listeria monocytogenes. The sensor depicts fast, sensitive, selective, and fully reversible sensing performance toward the analyte, as evidenced by the reliable finding of the foodborne pathogen at the very early stage.

The present study investigates strong acceptor-weak acceptor system, which generates through space charge transfer assemblies and shows excellent potential towards ROS generation, which efficiently regulates the photooxidation of aldehydes/alcohols.

A new strategy is developed to fabricate fluorescence photoswitch by harnessing dual roles of albumin proteins as both photochrome carriers and biotemplates of inorganic fluorophore, which exhibit high switching efficiency of 90%, reversible fluorescence response and good antifatigue performance.

Supramolecular control over thermo-responsive systems with lower critical solution temperature behavior represents an effective and convenient strategy to adjust thermo-responsiveness and introduce new stimuli.

The luminescence of anti-counterfeiting labels can be triggered or changed by excitation light, luminescence lifetime, chemical reagents, heat, mechanical force, or rotation. In this review, according to the numbers of changes of anti-counterfeiting labels under various regulation conditions, anti-counterfeiting strategies are classified into three levels: single-level, double-level, and multilevel anti-counterfeiting, and the state-of-the-art research on luminescence anti-counterfeiting are presented.

AIEgen-based crystalline porous materials were widely studied as chemical sensors with promising sensitivity and selectivity, short response time, and excellent recyclability. Two different sensing modes (“turn on” and “turn off”) were explored for monitoring various analytes, including hazardous wastes (NACs, heavy metals, and VOCs) and biomolecules (amino acids and drug). Chemical sensing behavior of AIE-active crystalline porous materials was summarized and some guidance for further development was provided.

Among various luminogens, tetraarylethylenes attract considerable attentions due to their widespread applications in chemo-/biosensing and optoelectronic devices. The structural diversity of tetraarylethylenes constructs a powerful platform for exploring their distinguished high-tech applications. A variety of synthetic protocols for the preparation of stereodefined tetraarylethylenes are summarized, and differences in properties and applications of TAEs stereoisomers are also discussed.

To realize aggregation-induced luminochromism in polystyrene, we designed bis-o-carborane-substituted conjugated triad. By loading the electron-rich unit, thiophene, onto the aggregation-induced emission-active skeleton, luminochromic behaviors by heating, followed by thermochromic luminescence, were obtained.

The optical nature of non-substituted trityl hexafluorophosphate (PF₆) in the crystalline state has been investigated. Trityl PF₆ exists as two crystal polymorphs including yellow and orange crystals, and the crystals display different color emissions. Further investigation revealed that the orange crystal undergoes a color change to yellow upon cooling, and both crystals display phosphorescence.

The recent advance of flexible sensors based on carbon nanotube assemblies as electrodes or functional materials has been carefully discussed, with an emphasis on understanding the working mechanism for their high sensing properties. The remaining challenges are finally highlighted to offer some insights for future study.