Journey of Aggregation-Induced Emission Research

Highly efficient luminescent materials in solid states are promising candidates for the development of organic optoelectrical materials and devices and chemical and biological sensors. Aggregation-induced emission (AIE), a novel photophyscial phenomena coined in 2001 where the aggregate formation enhances the light emission, has drawn great attention because it provides a fantastic platform for the development of these useful luminescent materials. After 17 years of AIE research, diverse AIE luminogens with tunable color and high quantum yields have been explored, which finds diverse applications from optics and electronics to energy and bioscience. Most importantly, the concept of AIE has gradually changed people's thinking way about the aggregation of luminogen and put forth a revolution of luminogen research both conceptually and technically. This perspective revisits our journey of AIE research, discusses our current understanding of the AIE mechanism, debates current challenges, and looks for the potential breakthroughs in this exciting research area.