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Received: 18 May 2023 Revised: 29 May 2023 Accepted: 5 June 2023

DOI: 10.1002/bio.4558

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Multistimuli-responsive fluorescence behaviours of


aggregation-induced emission small-molecule and electrospun
nanofibre films for acid–base vapour sensing

Chunping Ma 1,2,3 | Jiyin He 2 | Yancheng Wu 2 | Junlang Li 2 | Jiayi Chen 2 |


Yangfan Zhang 2 | Jinpeng Mo 2 | Haibo Xie 4 | Zhenguo Chi 5 | Yang Li 3 |
Yongcan Jin 1
1
Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Science & Technology, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China
2
School of Textile Materials and Engineering, Wuyi University, Jiangmen, China
3
School of Materials and Energy Engineering, Guizhou Institute of Technology, Guiyang, China
4
Department of Polymer Materials and Engineering, College of Materials and Metullurgy, Guizhou University, Guiyang, China
5
Key Laboratory for Polymeric Composite and Functional Materials of Ministry of Education, Guangdong Engineering Technology Research Center for High-
performance Organic and Polymer Photoelectric Functional Films, School of Chemistry, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China

Correspondence
Chunping Ma, School of Materials and Energy Abstract
Engineering, Guizhou Institute of Technology,
Multistimuli-responsive fluorescent materials have garnered great research interest
Guiyang 550003, China.
Email: machunpingaa@126.com benefited from their practical applications. Two twisted-structure compounds
Haibo Xie, Department of Polymer Materials containing tetraphenylethylene (TPE) as the aggregation-induced emission (AIE)
and Engineering, College of Materials and
Metullurgy, Guizhou University, Guiyang
group and a pyridine unit as the acid reaction site to obtain new multistimuli-
550025, China. responsive fluorescent compounds (namely, TPECNPy: TPECNPy-2 and TPECNPy-3)
Email: hbxie@gzu.edu.cn
were successfully synthesized through a one-step Knoevenagel condensation reac-
Yongcan Jin, Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory
of Pulp and Paper Science & Technology,
tion. The multiple-stimuli response process of TPECNPy was investigated by means
Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210009, of photoluminescence (PL) spectra and emission colour. The results showed that both
China.
Email: jinyongcan@njfu.edu.cn
TPECNPy compounds with excellent AIE abilities displayed reversible emission wave-
length and colour changes in response to multiple external stimuli, including
Funding information
Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research grinding–fuming by CH2Cl2 or annealing and HCl-NH3 vapour fuming. More impor-
Foundation, Grant/Award Numbers: tantly, fluorescent nanofibre films were prepared by electrospinning a solution of
2022A1515010969, 2020A1515110767;
Education Department of Guizhou Province,
TPECNPy mixed with cellulose acetate (CA), and these exhibited reversible acid-
Grant/Award Number: KY(2018)059; induced discolouration, even with only 1 wt% TPECNPy. The results of this study
Guangdong Key Laboratory of High
Performance and Functional Polymer
may inspire strategies for designing multistimuli-responsive materials and preparing
Materials, Grant/Award Number: 20220601; fluorescent sensing nanofibre films.
Guizhou Province Science and Technology
Planning Project, Grant/Award Number: (2019)
KEYWORDS
1419; Jiangmen City Basic and Theoretical
Scientific Research Science and Technology acid–base vapour sensing, AIE, mechanochromism luminescence, nanofibre films, twisted-
Planning Project, Grant/Award Number: structure compounds
2020JC01019; Jiangsu Province Postdoctoral
Research Funding Program, Grant/Award
Number: 2019K045; National Natural Science
Foundation of China, Grant/Award Number:

Chunping, Jiyin He, and Yancheng Wu contributed equally to the preparation of this work.

Luminescence. 2023;1–9. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/bio © 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 1


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2 MA ET AL.

52203014; Science Foundation for Professor


and Young Research Group of Wuyi University,
Grant/Award Numbers: 2020AL016,
JSQD2001; Wuyi University-Hong Kong/
Macau Joint Research Funds, Grant/Award
Number: 2021WGALH02

1 | I N T RO DU CT I O N An alternative solution is to fabricate fluorescent nanofibre films


mixed with AIE-based small organic molecules using electrospinning
Stimuli-responsive fluorescent materials that respond to external [26, 29], because this is a widely used scalable technique for the prep-
physical and chemical stimuli (such as aggregation [1], light [2, 3], aration of nanofibre films with high specific surface area and porosity
mechanical force [4], temperature [5], pH [6, 7], and chemical reagents [26, 32, 33]. Electrospun nanofibre films for fluorescent sensing have
[8, 9]) have garnered increased research interests thank to their wide been shown to improve the sensitivity and response rate and have
range of potential applications including in chemosensors, security therefore received considerable attention [34]. In this work, we
systems, optoelectronic devices, and information displays. To date, designed a twisted molecular structure containing tetraphenylethy-
considerable research efforts have been devoted to stimuli-responsive lene (TPE) as the AIE group and a pyridine unit as the acid reaction
fluorescent materials with the ability to respond to a single external site to obtain two new multistimuli-responsive fluorescent com-
stimulus [2, 4, 6, 7, 9], while far too little attention has been paid to pounds (namely, TPECNPy-2 and TPECNPy-3; Scheme 1). Both
those that can respond to multiple stimuli from the external environ- TPECNPy compounds possessed excellent AIE abilities and therefore
ment and display different signals [10]. Compared with monostimuli- displayed reversible emission colour conversion responding to multi-
responsive fluorescent materials, multistimuli-responsive fluorescent ple external stimuli such as grinding–fuming by CH2Cl2 or annealing
materials possess many advantages, such as multifunctionality, dis- and HCl-NH3 vapour fuming. More importantly, fluorescent nanofibre
tinct colour change, and a quick response, and therefore provide more films were prepared using electrospinning a solution of TPECNPy
flexible and precise control, which allows various characteristics to be mixed with cellulose acetate (CA), and they exhibited reversible acid-
simultaneously changed by multiple external stimuli [11–15]. induced discolouration. This study therefore provides a strategy for
Introducing a twisted molecular structure [16, 17] and/or some designing multistimuli-responsive materials and preparing fluorescent
heteroatoms [18, 19] is an ideal strategy to construct multistimuli- sensing nanofibre films.
responsive fluorescent materials, particularly mechanochromic
luminescent materials, because it is easy to form many types of inter-
molecular and/or intramolecular forces that are easily disrupted by 2 | EX PE RI MENT AL
external stimuli. More coincidentally, many aggregation-induced emis-
sion (AIE) molecules also have multistimuli-responsive characteristics 2.1 | Materials
due to their commonly requested structural features [17, 20–22].
Therefore, introducing some unique functional groups into AIE-based 4-(1,2,2-Triphenylethenyl)benzaldehyde (TPECHO) was synthesized
molecules can endow them with increased stimuli responsiveness, in the laboratory according to published literature [26].
except responsiveness to aggregation and mechanical force, therefore 2-Pyridylacetonitrile (98%), 3-pyridineacetonitrile (98%) and tetrabu-
serving as an efficient way to develop more multistimuli-responsive tylammonium hydroxide (TBAOH, 0.8 M in methanol) were acquired
fluorescent materials [23–28]. For example, introducing alkaline or from Shanghai Aladdin Biochemical Technology Co., Ltd. Cellulose
acidic groups, such as benzimidazole [26], benzothiazole [24], and acetate (39.8 wt% acetyl and 3.5 wt% hydroxy) was supplied by
hydroxy [23], groups, into AIE-based molecules results in additional Aladdin. Other commercial chemical reagents were used without
pH stimulus-responsive characteristics. As another example, the further treatment.
borate ester group was introduced into mechanochromic AIE-based
molecules, resulting in a fluorescent sensing ability for ClO
recognition [28]. 2.2 | Instruments
Currently, almost all multistimuli-responsive AIE materials with
1
fluorescent sensing ability are based on small organic molecules. H NMR spectra were measured on a Bruker AVANCE NEO 500
However, they show poor recyclability, which could cause secondary spectrometer with DMSO-d6 as the solvent. High-resolution mass
pollution due to difficulties separating them from the detection sys- spectrometry (HR-MS) analysis was conducted on a Thermo Fisher
tem [29]. Designing an AIE polymer film-based sensor has become an Q Exactive LCMS spectrometer. UV–vis absorption spectra were
effective alternative due to its recyclability and nonpolluting nature detected using a Shimadzu UV-2700 spectrophotometer. Fluores-
[30, 31]. However, the present AIE polymer film-based sensors still cence spectra were obtained on a Shimadzu RF-6000 fluorescence
have some shortcomings, such as numerous synthetic steps, complex spectrophotometer, respectively. Absolute PL quantum yields were
film-making technology, and low specific surface area and porosity. determined using a spectrometer (FLS980) equipped with a
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MA ET AL. 3

1
calibrated integrating sphere and a thermostat (Oxford) from TPECNPy-3, light-yellow solid, yield 73.6%; H NMR
Edinburgh Instruments. (600 MHz, DMSO-d6) δ = 8.93 (d, J = 1.9 Hz, 1H), 8.62 (dd, J = 4.7,
Diffraction data were recorded on a Rigaku XtaLAB single-crystal 1.5 Hz, 1H), 8.10 (ddd, J = 8.1, 2.4, 1.6 Hz, 1H), 8.04 (s, 1H), 7.75
diffractometer with Cu-Kα radiation (λ = 1.54184 Å). The structures (d, J = 8.4 Hz, 2H), 7.54 (ddd, J = 8.1, 4.8, 0.7 Hz, 1H), 7.21–6.98
were solved via direct methods and refined using the full-matrix least (m, 17H). HR-MS, m/z, calcd for C34H24N2: 461.2012, found:
squares technique on F2 with the SHELXTL package. All nonhydrogen 461.19968 [M + H]+.
atoms were refined using anisotropic thermal parameters. Hydrogen
atoms were generated geometrically. Powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD)
measurements were measured on a Rigaku X-ray diffractometer 2.4 | Preparation of CA-TPECNPy electrospun
(Ultima IV, Japan) using a Cu Kα X-ray source (λ = 0.1541 nm) at nanofibre films
40 kV and 40 mA. The surface morphologies of the nanofibre films
were surveyed using a scanning electron microscope (Sigma 500, Zeiss, The TPECNPy compounds (0.023 g) and CA (2.30 g) were dissolved in
German). Electrospinning was achieved using an E05 electrospinning a mixture of DMF/DCM (3.3 g/6.6 g) at room temperature to form a
apparatus (Lepton Technology Co., Ltd, Foshan, China). homogenous spinning solution. In the electrospinning procedure, the
1
spinning voltage was set to 13 kV. The fluid flow rate was 1 mlh .
The nanofibre films were collected using a rotating metal cylinder
2.3 | Synthesis of two TPECNPy compounds (100 r/min) covered with release paper, which was kept at an immo-
bile distance of 20 cm away from the needle tip of the spinneret
Two target compounds containing TPE and pyridine fragments were (0.7 mm inner diameter). Finally, the obtained CA-TPECNPy electro-
synthesized by means of the one-step Knoevenagel reaction, as indi- spun nanofibre films were dried in a vacuum oven at 70 C for 12 h to
cated in Scheme 1. completely remove the residual solvent.

2.3.1 | Synthesis of compound TPECNPy-2 3 | RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

A 50-ml two-necked round-bottomed flask was charged with TPE- 3.1 | Synthesis and characterization of the
CHO (1.00 g, 2.77 mmol), 2-pyridylacetonitrile (0.28 g, 2.77 mmol), TPECNPy compounds
and ethanol (20 ml). After adding TBAOH (0.8 M in methanol,
0.3 mmol) dropwise, the mixture was reacted for 6 h under magnetic As shown in Scheme 1, a simple and efficient Knoevenagel reaction
stirring at room temperature. Then, the solvent was removed through was used to synthesize two target compounds containing TPE and
reduced-pressure distillation. The residual solid was filtered and pyridine fragments (TPECNPy: TPECNPy-2 and TPECNPy-3) with
washed three times using ethanol, resulting in pure TPECNPy-2. satisfactory yields. The correct structures of the two compounds
TPECNPy-2, light-yellow solid, yield 78.5%; 1H NMR (500 MHz, TPECNPy were effectively proven by their NMR and MS spectra
DMSO-d6) δ = 8.66 (d, J = 4.3 Hz, 1H), 8.35 (s, 1H), 7.95 (t, (Figures S1–S4) and their single-crystal structures (Table S1 and
J = 7.7 Hz, 1H), 7.82 (t, J = 8.4 Hz, 3H), 7.47–7.41 (m, 1H), 7.21–6.97 Figure S5).
(m, 17H). HR-MS, m/z, calcd for C34H24N2: 461.2012, found:
461.20016 [M + H]+.
3.2 | AIE properties of the TPECNPy compounds

2.3.2 | Synthesis of compound TPECNPy-3 As an efficient AIE functional unit, TPE was introduced into the
compounds to endow them with AIE properties. Therefore, the AIE
The synthetic method of TPECNPy-3 was similar to that of properties of the TPECNPy compounds were systematically studied
TPECNPy-2, except that 3-pyridylacetonitrile was used to replace by obtaining the PL spectra of the compounds in THF–H2O mixtures
2-pyridylacetonitrile. with different water fractions (fw). As shown in Figure 1a, compound

S C H E M E 1 Synthetic route for


two TPECNPy compounds
(TPECNPy-2 and TPECNPy-3).
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4 MA ET AL.

F I G U R E 1 Fluorescence spectra of TPECNPy-2 (a) and TPECNPy-3 (c) in THF/water mixed solvents (10 μM) with different fw. Plot of the
emission intensity of TPECNPy-2 (b) and TPECNPy-3 (d) versus fw. The inset indicates changes in emission images of the TPECNPy compounds in
fw of 0% and 90% under 365 nm UV light.

TPECNPy-2 displayed a weak fluorescence intensity in the fw range TPECNPy-3 emitted cyan fluorescence with wavelengths of 479 nm
from 0% to 70%. However, as fw increased above 70%, the and 474 nm and high quantum yields (ΦF) of 0.93 and 0.87,
fluorescence emission of TPECNPy-2 at 493 nm increased sharply. respectively. When the original powders were ground, the fluores-
Eventually, the fluorescence intensity increased 18-fold at an fw of cence colour of the resulting ground powders of TPECNPy-2 and
90% compared with that in pure THF (Figure 1b). These results TPECNPy-3 changed to green, with emission wavelengths of
indicated that compound TPECNPy-2 formed nanoparticle 508 nm and 500 nm, respectively. However, the green fluorescence
aggregates in a poor solvent system, as proven by the level-off tail colour was reversible, returning to the original state with the same
phenomenon in the UV–vis absorption spectra of TPECNPy-2 emission wavelength upon simple CH2Cl2 fuming or annealing,
(Figure S6a) when fw exceeded 70% [26], and exhibited excellent therefore demonstrating the reversible MCL properties of these
AIE abilities. Similarly, compound TPECNPy-3 also showed a good compounds. The reversible MCL properties of the TPECNPy
AIE effect (Figure 1c and Figure S6b). The fluorescence intensity of compounds may be attributed to a morphology change between
TPECNPy-3 at 515 nm increased 10-fold at an fw of 90% compared the crystalline and partial amorphous states caused by modification
with that in pure THF (Figure 1d). of the molecular arrangement, which was proven using PXRD
measurements [22].
As shown in Figure 3, the original powders of TPECNPy-2 and
3.3 | Mechanochromism luminescence (MCL) TPECNPy-3 gave rise to many sharp diffraction peaks in the PXRD
properties of the TPECNPy compounds curve, while the ground powders resulted in rather weak and even
absent diffraction peaks. These results indicate that a well ordered
To evaluate the stimulus–response characteristics of the two crystalline structure was converted to an amorphous structure after
TPECNPy compounds, the fluorescence behaviours of the TPECNPy grinding [16]. Moreover, the sharp diffraction peaks were recovered
compounds in the solid state were studied under mechanical stimuli. and were similar to those of the original powders of TPECNPy-2 and
As shown in Figure 2, the original powders of TPECNPy-2 and TPECNPy-3 after fuming by CH2Cl2 vapour or annealing of the
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MA ET AL. 5

F I G U R E 2 Normalized emission
spectra and emission images (inset) of the
corresponding samples for (a) TPECNPy-2
and (b) TPECNPy-3.

FIGURE 3 PXRD patterns of the corresponding samples for (a) TPECNPy-2 and (b) TPECNPy-3.

ground powders, indicating a return to the well ordered crystalline obvious redshift of 75 and 21 nm compared with the wavelengths of
structure. Therefore, the phase transition between crystalline and par- the original powders. The protonated powders of TPECNPy-2 and
tial amorphous states played a vital role in the reversible MCL proper- TPECNPy-3 after fuming with NH3 vapour exhibited cyan fluores-
ties of the TPECNPy compounds [16]. cence, with emission wavelengths that were almost the same as
those of the original powders. Similarly, reversible acid–base disco-
louration performance was also observed for the ground powders of
3.4 | Acid–base discolouration properties of the TPECNPy-2 (Figure 4c) and TPECNPy-3 (Figure 4d). These results
TPECNPy compounds indicated that both the original and ground powders of TPECNPy
exhibited good reversible acid–base discolouration performance,
Due to the protonateable pyridine unit in the TPECNPy compounds, making them suitable candidates for reversible acidic-pH-activatable
a fluorescent change may be achieved by the stimulus of acid, which fluorescence sensors.
can protonate the nitrogen atom of the pyridine unit to tune its TPECNPy-2 exhibited a larger red shift than TPECNPy-3 upon
electron-withdrawing ability. To test this hypothesis, the changes in HCl fuming, which may have been caused by the different substitu-
the fluorescence behaviours of the original powders of TPECNPy ent positions of the pyridines. To reveal the detailed mechanism of
before and after fuming with HCl vapour were investigated. As the colour change, theoretical calculations were performed to inter-
shown in Figure 4, protonated powders of TPECNPy-2 (Figure 4a) pret the reversible acid–base discolouration. The frontier molecular
and TPECNPy-3 (Figure 4b) were formed after fuming with HCl orbital distributions of TPECNPy-2 and TPECNPy-3 and the corre-
vapour and exhibited yellow and green fluorescence with wave- sponding protonated species (TPECNPy-2-HCl and TPECNPy-3-HCl)
lengths of 555 and 495 nm, respectively, corresponding to an were examined using density functional theory (DFT) calculations
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6 MA ET AL.

F I G U R E 4 Normalized emission spectra and emission images (inset) of the corresponding samples for the original powder of (a) TPECNPy-2
and (b) TPECNPy-3 and the ground powder of (c) TPECNPy-2 and (d) TPECNPy-3 after HCl fuming (3 h) and subsequent NH3 fuming (3 h).

F I G U R E 5 Proposed reaction mechanism for (a) TPECNPy-2 and (b) TPECNPy-3 treated with HCl and NH3 and the frontier molecular orbital
distributions of the TPECNPy compounds [(a) TPECNPy-2 and (b) TPECNPy-3] and the corresponding protonated species [(a) TPECNPy-2-HCl
and (b) TPECNPy-3-HCl].
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MA ET AL. 7

using Gaussian 09 at the B3LYP/6-311G(d,p) level (Figure 5). For 3-HCl (2.73 and 3.26 eV) were lower than those of TPECNPy-2 and
TPECNPy-2 and TPECNPy-3, the highest occupied molecular orbital TPECNPy-3 (3.26 and 3.42 eV), respectively. Therefore, the red
(HOMO) was located on the TPE moiety and the cyano-substituted shift in the fluorescence spectra of protonated TPECNPy-2 and
vinyl unit, while the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) TPECNPy-3 was attributed to the delocalization effect of the
was located on the phenyl- and cyano-substituted vinyl unit and the frontier orbitals. Furthermore, the LUMO of TPECNPy-2-HCl
pyridine unit. The separated frontier orbitals indicate that the TPE showed a much more separated distribution with dispersion to the
moieties and cyano-substituted vinyl units act as donors and associated chloride atom, resulting in lower LUMO levels and a
acceptors, respectively. Generally, the emission colour of emitters larger red shift in the emission. In other words, the substituent
can be altered by both donors and acceptors. For TPECNPy-2-HCl position of the pyridine groups can regulate the colour change in
and TPECNPy-3-HCl, the electron density distributions of the response to HCl.
LUMO were delocalized but tended to localize on the pyridine
hydrochloride unit. Correspondingly, the energy gap (ΔE) values
between the HOMO and LUMO of TPECNPy-2-HCl and TPECNPy- 3.5 | Acid–base vapour sensing property of
CA-TPECNPy-based electrospun nanofibre films

Small fluorescent organic molecules exhibit poor film-forming proper-


ties, and expensive equipment (e.g., vacuum evaporator) is needed to
prepare films. To overcome this drawback, the TPECNPy compounds
were mixed with CA to prepare a CA-TPECNPy-based nanofibrous
film using the electrospinning technique. The addition of the
TPECNPy compounds to the nanofibrous films did not affect the mor-
phology, and the nanofibrous films with diameters of 350–450 nm
generated by blending compounds TPECNPy with CA were homoge-
neous and bead-free on the surface of the nanofibrous films
(Figure 6). The CA-TPECNPy-2-based and CA-TPECNPy-3-based
electrospun nanofibrous films emitted significant cyan fluorescence,
with maximum emission wavelengths at 502 nm and 498 nm, respec-
tively, even with only 1 wt% TPECNPy.
With the highly fluorescent CA-TPECNPy-based electrospun
nanofibre films in hand, we evaluated their fluorescence sensing
properties using an acid-induced discolouration experiment

F I G U R E 6 SEM images of CA-TPECNPy-based electrospun (Figure 7). After fuming with HCl vapour, the resulting films
nanofibre films: (a) TPECNPy-2 and (b) its high resolution; (TPECNPy-2-HCl and TPECNPy-3-HCl) exhibited an obvious
(c) TPECNPy-3, and (d) its high resolution. fluorescence colour change from cyan to orange and yellow with

F I G U R E 7 Normalized emission spectra and emission images (inset) of the corresponding (a) CA-TPECNPy-2-based and (b) CA-TPECNPy-
3-based electrospun nanofibre films: black line, the original TPECNPy-based electrospun nanofibrous film; red line, HCl-fumed (0.5 h) film from
original film; blue line, NH3-fumed (15 min) film from HCl-fumed (0.5 h) film.
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8 MA ET AL.

obvious red shifts of the maximum emission wavelengths to 615 nm OR CID


and 562 nm, respectively (Figure 7). In addition, when the Chunping Ma https://orcid.org/0009-0000-3065-9592
TPECNPy-2-HCl and TPECNPy-3-HCl films were fumed with NH3
vapour, the fluorescence colour of the resulting films (TPECNPy- RE FE RE NCE S
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