Decoration of porphyrin with tetraphenylethene: converting a fluorophore with aggregation-caused quenching to aggregation-induced emission enhancement.

Porphyrins have long been used as fluorescence imaging contrast agents. However, they often suffer from aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) which limits their maximal imaging ability. It is desirable to design new porphyrin derivatives exhibiting aggregation induced emission enhancement (AIEE) with a high photoluminescence (PL) intensity in an aggregated state.