Aggregation Induced Emission Supramolecular Functionalized Benzimidazole Hydrogel for Metal‐Ion Responsive and Fluorescent Anti‐Counterfeiting

Abstract Stimuli‐responsive supramolecular hydrogels have established increasing attention for many applications, owing to the dynamic covalent bonds and dynamic combination chemistry involved in the construction of supramolecular hydrogels. We designate the fabrication of a new supramolecular hydrogel G2 based‐on benzimidazole in the presence of ethylene glycol/water with aggregation‐induced emission (AIE) property. The hydrogel demonstrates interesting switchable ON‐OFF fluorescence along with the Gel‐Sol transition. With the addition of Fe 3+ , the AIE of hydrogel G2 was quenched meanwhile the gel state was destroyed. G2 shows tunable stimuli‐responsive for Fe 3+ and interesting optical sensing properties. This outstanding behavior endows the hydrogel G2 with the capability of being used as anti‐counterfeiting.