High-Performance Emission/Color Dual-Switchable Polymer-Bearing Pendant Tetraphenylethylene (TPE) and Triphenylamine (TPA) Moieties

Electrofluorochromic (EFC) materials have aroused great interest owing to their interesting ability of tuning fluorescence in response to the applied potential. However, some crucial characteristics, such as response speed, fluorescence contrast, and switching stability, are still not well realized to meet the requirements of practical applications. Herein, we designed and synthesized a novel polyamide-bearing aggregation-induced emission (AIE)-active tetraphenylethylene (TPE) and a highly conjugated triphenylamine (TPA) pendant group. The rational combination of the highly conjugated TPA and TPE caused the resultant polymer to exhibit highly integrated electrochromic (EC) and EFC performances including multiple color-changing (colorless to green to blue), fast response speed (1.8/1.1 s for EC and 0.4/2.9 s for EFC process), high fluorescence contrast (82 at the duration time of 20 s), and excellent long-term stability over 300 cycles. The strategy of AIE functionality by combing a highly conjugated redox unit demonstrates a synergistic effect to prepare high-performance emission/color dual-switchable materials, greatly promoting their applications in sensors, smart windows, and displays.