Seeking Aggregation-Induced Emission Materials in Food: Oat β-Glucan and Its Diverse Applications

With the basic understanding and broad application prospects of luminescent materials, the emission mechanism of unconventional luminescent agents has been revealed gradually. Here, we report a non-conjugated biomass material, oat β-glucan (oat-β-Glu), which actually does not emit light in a dilute solution but emits significantly when forming aggregates. Inherently visible emission of oat-β-Glu from the concentrated solutions and solid state could be observed. In addition, we have observed room temperature phosphorescence in oat-β-Glu powders, which is also unusual in pure organic materials. It can be proposed that the luminescence property of oat-β-Glu originates from the spatial conjugation of the oxygen atoms of oat-β-Glu. This clustering-triggered emission mechanism may well be expanded to other unconventional biomacromolecules, inspiring the rational design of luminescent agents. Due to its good biocompatibility and intrinsic emission characteristics, oat-β-Glu has shown great potential application prospects in bioimaging and biosensors.