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Multi-axis atropisomers are common, but techniques for structural elucidation are limited. Here, the authors report a correlation between molecular dynamics and electronic through-space conjugation (TSC), along with absolute separation of the syn and anti conformers.

Stone tools illustrate behavioural complexities in Middle Pleistocene hominin populations. Here, the authors present small dimensional flakes and hafted tools from Xigou, central China, dated to ~160–72 thousand years ago that demonstrate early, complex technological advancements.

Non-traditional luminescent polymers are materials without extended π-conjugation. Here the authors develop highly luminescent supramolecular polymers using dynamic quadruple hydrogenbonded motifs with potential for sensing and fluorescent adhesives.

As vital components of photodynamic therapy, organic photosensitizers face challenges in clinical translation due to their compromised reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and limited tumor targeting when aggregated or formulated as nanoparticles. Here, the authors propose a steric hindrance–plane–hindrance molecular design strategy to guide the self-assembly of twisted donor–π–acceptor photosensitizers into rod-shaped nanoparticles, which concurrently enhance ROS generation and tumor accumulation.

As a result of aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ), many fluorophores show only weak emission when incorporated into covalent organic frameworks. Here, the authors report the development of emissive COFs from ACQ chromophores by an energy level matching strategy.

Fine tuning of mechanical properties in elastomers is important for application of elastomers in flexible devices and biomedical field. Here, the authors prepare a nacre inspired PDMS-montmorrillonite composite with good mechanical properties and demonstrate crack tracing using aggregation-induced emission luminogens.

Multielectron molecular CO₂ reduction in acid is challenged by weak CO binding and competing hydrogen evolution. Here a methanol Faradaic efficiency of 62% is achieved in acid by tuning the microenvironment with cationic, hydrophobic and aerophilic layers.

Developing porous crystalline materials with tailored properties is challenging because of the vast design space and the high cost of screening. Now, highly fluorescent covalent organic frameworks have been identified through an AI-assisted iterative experiment–learning cycle workflow that integrates electronic configuration and quantum-level insights into the learning process.

Regulation of aggregation by light is a useful phenomenon, but the role of the solvent is not often considered. Here, the authors report the development of photoinduced hydrous organic aggregates, emissive in the presence of both water and photoirradiation.

Stimuli responsive luminescent materials are important in applied research but many of these materials are based on fluorescent stimuli responsive materials. Here, the authors report a stimulus-responsive room temperature phosphorescent materials composed of a phosphorescent chromophore of arylboronic acid and poly(vinylalcohol) with color tunable and water process able properties.

“Understanding the structure-property relationship of organic molecules which exhibit different properties upon aggregation is important for the field of material science. Here, the authors prepare nonconjugated rhodamine-based molecules without aggregation-induced emission building blocks yet displaying typical aggregation-induced emission behavior.”

The demonstration of pure organic room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) luminogens with complementary emission is a key requirement for developing low-cost white light emitters. Here, the authors construct RTP-active organic salt compounds by exchanging the counterion with a heavy halide ion.

Most applications of aggregation-induced emission luminogens (AIEgens) have been limited in small animal models. Here, the authors show the versatility of AIEgens-based imaging-guided surgical operation from small animals to rhesus macaque, in support of the clinical translation of AIEgens.

The structural transformation of crystals triggered by external stimuli is a fascinating area in materials science and supramolecular chemistry, though it is challenging to maintain crystallinity during an organic reaction. Here the authors show an example of a triethylamine vapor-induced cyclization reaction in a cocrystal, leading to its conversion into polycrystals.

Although many room temperature phosphorescence host–guest systems with versatile performances have been developed, their photophysical mechanisms remain often unclear. Here the authors reveal that a dynamic coupling process in the excited state is crucial for inducing phosphorescence, where host and guest molecules firstly couple to enhance the intersystem crossing efficiency, and then decouple to transfer excitons to the triplet state of guest.

Achieving multiple fluorescence changes in a single luminogenic system is desirable but challenging. Here, the authors report a chromone-based aggregation-induced emission luminogen, with six distinct thermal and photoswitchable states.

Toxic amyloid-beta plaque and harmful inflammation are two leading hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and precise AD therapy is elusive due to the lack of dual-targeting therapy function, limited blood-brain barrier penetration, and low imaging sensitivity. Here, the authors address these issues by designing a near-infrared-II aggregation-induced emission nanotheranostic for precise AD therapy.

Molecular aggregation is a widespread and important process in physiological metabolism, but details regarding conformational changes during the process are hard to probe. Here, the authors use circular dichroism to monitor in-situ the conformational changes occurring during molecular aggregation.

Gold nanoclusters show promise as photothermal materials, but are often thermally unstable. Here ligand engineering is used to integrate molecular rotors with gold nanoclusters to dissipate thermal energy and improve photothermal therapy performance.

Though organic emitters with room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) are attractive for various applications, realizing highly efficient and long lifetime emission remains a challenge. Here, the authors report the role of push-pull electronic effects on emission for organic RTP emitters.

Cerebrospinal fluid circulating tumor DNA profiling had prognostic value in a cohort of 584 patients with lung cancer and central nervous system metastases, and could be used to inform personalized therapies.

Although mature and systematic theories of molecular photophysics have been developed, it is still challenging to endow clusteroluminogens (CLgens) with designed photophysical properties by manipulating through-space interactions. Here, the authors design three CLgens that show multiple emissions and white-light emission in the crystalline state, and emphasize the important role of secondary through-space interactions between the acceptor and non-conjugated donor units.

The formation of tertiary lymphoid structures (TLS) is promising for boosting cancer immunotherapy, but it is challenging to develop potential inducers for TLS formation. Here, the authors report a covalent organic framework (COF) that is able to trigger TLS formation.

Intracellular regulation of small molecule aggregation is challenging. Here, the authors achieved tumor-targeted aggregation of an aggregation-induced emission photosensitizer (AIE-PS), TBmA, using γ-glutamyl transferase, an enzyme overexpressed in tumors, and showed this causes ferroptosis in cancer cells through photodynamic therapy.

Organic cluster-triggered emission (CTE) displays promising application in bioimaging, chemical sensing, and multicolor luminescence but circular polarize luminescence derived from CTE remains less studied. Here, the authors demonstrate CTE based CPL emission from a supramolecular film derived from solid phase molecular self-assembly.

Disturbing the redox balance in anaerobic bacteria presents a promising but underdeveloped strategy for the treatment of difficult-to-cure diseases caused by anaerobic bacteria. Here, the authors report a photocatalytic system to perturb the redox balance in oxygen-free conditions, achieving photocatalytic therapy to treat periodontitis.

The utility of photosensitizers for cancer therapies is often hindered by a single photosensitizing mechanism, the need of multiple irradiations, and limited tumor penetration and retention. Here, the authors address these issues by developing an aggregation-induced emission luminogen bacteria hybrid bionic robot that enables multimodal imaging and therapy and activates anti-tumor immunity.

Molecular systems displaying aggregation-induced emission (AIE) have important biomedical and optoelectronic applications. Here the authors report a further mechanism for AIE, through aromaticity reversal from the ground state to the excited state, in the non-aromatic annulene derivative of cyclooctatetrathiophene.

Nanomedicine has promise for treatment of cancer, but achieving targeting and efficacy is challenging. Here, the authors report the development of gold-based aggregation-induced emission materials that demonstrate tumour cell specific targeting and lead to cell death.

Multi-resonance materials possess narrow emission spectra, desirable for high-definition organic light-emitting diodes, but most are based on a boron-nitrogen skeleton, providing limited opportunities to expand the scope of these materials. Here, the authors report carbonyl-nitrogen skeleton 5,12-dihydroquinolino[2,3-b]acridine-7,14-dione and develop three multi-resonance materials with efficient green emissions and high photoluminescence quantum yields, and further demonstrate their promise through the fabrication of efficient hyperfluorescence OLEDs.

The realization of circularly polarized organic light-emitting diodes with narrow-spectrum emission and high efficiency is challenging. Here, authors report an approach for these devices by developing chiral thermally activated delayed fluorescence sensitizers for achiral multi-resonance emitters.

Clusteroluminescence from non-conjugated and nonemissive molecules is an area of increasing interest. Here, the authors consider the development of the field, as well as potential future directions.

We introduce a major scientific endeavour called π-HuB (proteomic navigator of the human body), its aim being to generate and harness multimodality proteomic datasets to enhance our understanding of human biology.

Second near-infrared (NIR-II) fluorescence imaging is promising for real-time surveillance of surgical operations, but its clinical uses have been limited by the safety and cost concerns associated with lasers or X-rays. Here the authors report the engineering and applications of white-light activatable organic nanomaterials with bright NIR-II emission.

Flexible materials with mechano-responsive luminescence has gained interest for their potential in sensing devices. Here, the authors demonstrate targeted folding under high compressive strains, which, together with the oxygen quenching of fluorophores, forms the basis for topo-optical sensing.

The limited functionality and complex fabrication of polymer material with externally controlled reversible deformation hinder their further development. Here, the authors produce fluorescent and robust photoactuators with single layered janus structure for different applications.

Molecular potentiometers that can indicate displacement-conductance relationship, and predict and control molecular conductance are of significant importance but rarely developed. Here, the authors design a robust single-molecule potentiometers based on helical structures and give insight in fundamental understanding of charge transport in higher-order helical molecules.

Tuberculosis is a major global health issue. Here the authors report Mycobacterium-pre-activated macrophage membrane-coated photothermal nanoparticles for targeted tuberculous granuloma and pathogen dual imaging and antibacterial photothermal therapy.

Cocrystal engineering is a promising strategy for constructing multifunctional materials. Here, the authors describe nucleic-acid-base cocrystal systems with different colors of phosphorescence from their monomeric counterparts and high-temperature phosphorescence with antimicrobial effects and data encryption applications.

Laser-induced graphene (LIG) can be obtained via a practically convenient approach, but its amorphous characteristics limit its applications. Here, the authors report a flash Joule heating strategy to improve the crystalline quality and conductivity of LIG, leading to strain sensors with enhanced sensitivity.

To date we have a myriad of luminogenes at our deposal but many of them face problems like weakened emission in the aggregated state as well as poor sustainability. Here, the authors develop a class of rosin-derived luminogens with aggregation induced emission properties providing good biocompatibility and demonstrate their application in organelle imaging.

Two chiral enantiomers, R- and S-BBTI, are found to efficiently emit near-infrared circularly polarized phosphorescence with a large dissymmetry factor of 0.013 in dilute solutions.

Current CRISPR diagnostic approaches can be hampered by several limitations, including low signal transduction efficiency and limited sensitivity. Here, the authors present CrisprAIE, an approach based on CRISPR/Cas-mediated “one to more” lighting-up nucleic acid detection using aggregation-induced emission luminogens.

Efficient organic emitters of ultraviolet light are realized by the use of isomers that exhibit strong through-space conjugation.

Pyroptosis and ferroptosis are typically induced by metal species or chemotherapeutic drugs, and able to boost a robust antitumor immunity, however their therapeutic uses have been hindered by the risks arising from metal species or chemotherapeutic drugs. Here the authors report a pyroptosis and ferroptosis dual-inducer based on non-metallic AIEgen-based covalent organic frameworks.