A Novel 3D-Morphology Pyrene-Derived Conjugated Fluorescence Polymer for Picric Acid Detection

Aggregation-induced quenching (ACQ) is a hard problem in fluorescence material, leading to a poor utilization rate of fluorophores. In this work, 1,3,6,8-tetrakis(4-formylphenyl)pyrene (TFPPy) was synthesized and used as a precursor to build two kinds of fluorescence polymer. The TFFPy molecule with D2h symmetry can easily form polymers with C3 symmetry amines through the Schiff base reaction, making the resulting polymer a 3D amorphous material. Thus, ACQ of fluorophore can be reduced to minimum, making the most usage of the fluorescence of pyrene core. Fluorescence titration and DFT calculation can clearly prove this conclusion. The resulting CPs showed a highly sensitivity to picric acid, down to 3.43 ppm in solution, implying its potential in explosive detection.