AIE based luminescent porous materials as cutting-edge tool for environmental monitoring: State of the art advances and perspectives

Various research groups around the globe are focusing on the design and development of innovative luminescent systems, because of their multiple and unique features such as remarkable sensitivity, rapid signal response time, and ease of operation. In particular, aggregation-induced emission (AIE) based luminescent frameworks have emerged as potential candidates for sensing applications owing to the distinct emission property of AIE luminogens (AIEgens). Thus, numerous AIEgen-based porous materials like metal organic frameworks (MOFs), covalent organic frameworks (COFs), porous organic polymers (POPs), and metal organic cages (MOCs) have been established over the past decade for sensing applications with exceptional performances that surpass the conventional luminescent probes. This review provides systematic information on the fundamentals of AIE, the operating mechanism involved, and finally sheds light on recent advancements in AIE-based luminescent porous materials (MOFs, COFs, POPs, and MOCs) for potential sensing applications with special emphasis on environmental safety. The important detection parameters such as sensitivity, response time, selectivity, etc., of such AIE porous materials are highlighted for the detection of a variety of chemical compounds.