Reaction-based AIE-active Fluorescent Probes for Selective Detection and Imaging

Fluorescent probes have been widely investigated for their features of rapid response, easy operation and high sensitivity. Among them, reaction-based fluorescent probes, for their unique reaction-based nature, guarantee them with excellent selectivity, effectively avoiding the possible interference from other chemical and biological species in physiological environment. Conventional reaction-based fluorescent probes are aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) fluorophores. The application of these kinds of probes are limited for their poor photostability and narrow Stokes shifts. Compared with ACQ fluorophores, aggregation-induced emission (AIE) fluorophores become emissive in aggregation states with higher signal-to-noise ratio, better photostability and larger Stokes shifts. In this review, we summarize the latest developed reaction-based AIE-active probes, including the design principle and application in various sensing systems and give an outlook for the future development of this kind of promising fluorescent probes.