Dendrimer-Based, High-Luminescence Conjugated Microporous Polymer Films for Highly Sensitive and Selective Volatile Organic Compound Sensor Arrays

Conjugated microporous polymers (CMPs) are attracting increasing attention in chemical sensing due to their extended pi-conjugated framework, permanent microporous structure, and large specific surface area. However, the extremely poor solubility and processability of CMPs, as well as the serious fluorescence quenching caused by aggregation, restrict their practical applications. Herein, a high-luminescence CMP film is constructed based on a novel dendrimer (TPETCz) featured by its central tetraphenylethylene core with aggregation-induced emission effect and its highly electro-active branches. High specific surface area CMP films for analyte diffusion are fabricated by a facile in situ electropolymerization method. These dendrimer-based CMP films exhibit superior sensitivity to volatile organic compounds (VOCs). More importantly, 18 types, the most types reported, of VOC vapors are precisely distinguished by the linear discriminant analysis by establishing a 2D fluorescence sensor array based on the CMP films and the dendrimer monomer films.