Co-Assembly Into a Hydrogen-Bonded Organic Framework With 2D Channels as a Fluorescent Probe of Aniline

Luminescent hydrogen-bonded organic frameworks (HOFs) show a great promise in sensing and imaging applications; however, their properties are highly related to the interior building units. On the other hand, most HOFs are only obtained with a simple porous structure, letting the development of the HOFs with rich porous architectures remain a challenge. In this work, we fabricate a HOF through a co-assembly of an aggregation-induced emission (AIE) unit of tetracarboxyl-functionalized tetraphenylpyrazine (TPP-4COOH) and 1,2-di(4-pyridyl)ethane (DPE). The strong supramolecular interactions between the functional groups in the TPP-4COOH and DPE are vital to the formation of the HOF with rare two-dimensional channels. As inherited by the AIE effect of TPP-4COOH, the HOF displays an obvious deep-blue emission. Combined with the emission property and porous structure of the HOF, as well as the unique electronic property of the introduced AIE unit, it can fluorescently detect aniline with an excellent performance. This work not only provides a clue for designing the HOFs with a rich porous structure but also highlights the role of tetraphenylpyrazine in designing the functional HOFs.