Nonconjugated Polyesters Emitting Full-Color Clusteroluminescence

Abstract

Photoluminescent polymers have been attracting great attention, owing to their intrinsic mechanical properties, diverse structures, and the ability of intra/inter-chain interactions to regulate their luminescent properties. Conventional luminescent polymers contain classical luminophores, such as extended π-conjugated aromatic carbocyclic and heterocyclic groups, which could emit multicolor photoluminescence (PL) but suffer from biotoxicity, poor processability, complicated synthesis, and environmental hazards. In recent decades, heteroatom (e.g., O, N)-rich nonconjugated polymers without classical luminophores have been revealed to exhibit abnormal photoluminescence, namely, clusteroluminescence (CL), originating from through-space electronic interaction between heteroatomic groups. These newly discovered heteroatomic polymers take advantage of low cost, mass production, processability, and biocompatibility. Therefore, developing full-color CL polymers and revealing their unique PL mechanisms are highly desired in chemistry, biology, and material science.