Aggregation-Induced Enhanced Emission of Tetraphenylethene-phenylalanine Hybrids: Synthesis and Characterization.

Aggregation-induced emitting (AIE) luminophores are sensitive and easy-to-handle types of probes that allow driving a stimulus-responsive off/on optical tool through the manipulation of the aggregation behavior. In this work, tetraphenylethene (TPE)-phenylalanine derivatives, characterized by strong aggregation-induced luminescence, were obtained through Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reactions. The reaction proved to be straightforwardly applicable in the single amino acid synthesis as well as in the late-stage peptide functionalization by means of both the classical solution-phase reaction and solid-phase synthesis.