Switchable sensitizers stepwise lighting up lanthanide emissions

Analagous to a long-ranged rocket equipped with multi-stage engines, a luminescent compound with consistent emission signals across a large range of concentrations from two stages of sensitizers can be designed. In this approach, ACQ, aggregation-caused quenching effect of sensitizers, would stimulate lanthanide emission below 10(−4) M, and then at concentrations higher than 10(−3) M, the “aggregation-induced emission” (AIE) effect of luminophores would be activated with the next set of sensitizers for lanthanide emission. Simultaneously, the concentration of the molecules could be monitored digitally by the maximal excitation wavelengths, due to the good linear relationship between the maximal excitation wavelengths and the concentrations {lg(M)}. This model, wherein molecules are assembled with two stages (both AIE and ACQ effect) of sensitizers, may provide a practicable strategy for design and construction of smart lanthanide bioprobes, which are suitable in complicated bioassay systems in which concentration is variable.