Self-assembled porous nanoparticles based on silicone polymers with aggregation-induced emission for highly sensitive detection of nitroaromatics

Abstract

Aggregation-induced emission (AIE)-active polymeric materials have been regarded as an ideal class of fluorescent materials widely used as fluorescent chemosensors. Herein, we demonstrate a simple and effective approach based on a single-step Diels–Alder reaction to the synthesis of 1,2,4,5-tetraphenylbenzene functionalized polysiloxane (TPB-P) with typical AIE characteristics. With strong fluorescence emission caused by the AIE feature, TPB-P aggregated nanoparticles were used as fluorescent sensors and they exhibited high sensitivity and selectivity for fluorescence detection to picric acid with a LoD of 4.8 nM. The excellent performance was attributed to the self-assembly of TPB-P to aggregated nanoparticles with a unique porous structure due to the π–π interaction and flexible silicone polymer chain, which can play a key role in enhancing the interaction between the analyte and fluorophore. Moreover, large-scale preparation of TPB-P was easily realized, suggesting that TPB-P has great potential to be applied practically. This work offers a new avenue to design AIE-active polymers for promising fluorescent sensors.