Aggregation-induced fluorescence enhancement for efficient X-ray imaging scintillators and high-speed optical wireless communication

by Jian-Xin Wang, Yue Wang, Issatay Nadinov, Jun Yin, Luis Gutiérrez-Arzaluz, Omar Alkhazragi, Tengyue He, Tien Khee Ng, Mohamed Eddaoudi, Husam N. Alshareef, Osman M. Bakr, Boon S. Ooi, Omar F. Mohammed
Year: 2022 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsmaterialslett.2c00498

Abstract

Aggregation of some chromophores generates very strong fluorescence signals due to the tight molecular packing and highly restricted vibrational motions in the electronically excited states. Such an aggregation-induced emission enhancement enables great strides in biomedical imaging, security screening, sensing, and light communication applications. Here, we realized efficient utilization of a series of aggregation-induced emission luminogens (AIEgens) in X-ray imaging scintillators and optical wireless communication (OWC) technology. Ultrafast time-resolved laser spectroscopic experiments and high-level density functional theory (DFT) calculations clearly demonstrate that a significant increase in the rotational energy barrier in the aggregated state of AIEgens is observed, leading to highly restricted molecular vibrations and suppressed nonradiative processes. AIEgen-based scintillators exhibit a high X-ray imaging resolution of 16.3 lp mm–1, making them excellent candidates for X-ray radiography and security inspections. In addition, these AIEgens show a broad -3-dB modulation bandwidth of ∼110 MHz and high net data rates of ∼600 Mb/s, demonstrating their high potential for application in the field of high-speed OWC.