Aggregation‐Induced Emission in a Hyperbranched Poly(silylenevinylene) and Superamplification in Its Emission Quenching by Explosives

A silicon‐containing hyperbranched polymer ( hb ‐P 1 / 2 ) with σ *– π * conjugation was prepared in a good yield and high molecular weight by rhodium‐catalyzed alkyne polyhydrosilylation of 1,2‐bis(4‐ethynylphenyl)‐1,2‐diphenylethene ( 1 ) with tris(4‐dimethylsilylphenyl)amine ( 2 ). The polymer was thermally stable, losing merely 5% of its weight when heated to ≈445 °C. Whereas hb ‐P 1 / 2 was weakly luminescent when molecularly dissolved, it became highly emissive when supramolecularly aggregated, showing an aggregation‐induced emission (AIE) phenomenon. A superamplification effect was observed when the AIE nanoaggregates were used as fluorescent chemosensor for explosive detection: the quenching efficiency was greatly increased in a nonlinear fashion with increasing quencher concentration.