It is extremely challenging but desirable to regulate photophysical and photochemical processes of aggregation-induced emission luminogens (AIEgens) in distinct state in a controllable manner. Herein, we design two groups of...

Long-term in situ cell membrane-targeted bioimaging is of great significance for studying specific biological processes and functions, but currently developed membrane probes are rarely simultaneously used to image the plasma membrane of animal and plant cells, and these probes lack sufficiently high long-term targeting ability. Herein, we proposed an antipermeability strategy to achieve highly specific and long-term imaging of plasma membranes of both human and plant cells using the steric hindrance effect and restriction-induced emission of AIE-active probes based on an updated membrane model. A certain degree of rigidity of plasma membrane containing a large ratio of rigid cholesterol molecules in the updated membrane model provides a promising opportunity to design antipermeable probes by introducing a rigid steric hindrance group in the probe. The designed antipermeable probes can anchor inside plasma membrane for a long term relying on the combination of the steric hindrance effect and the electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions between the probe and the membrane, as well as light up the membrane via the restriction-induced emission mechanism. The excellent performance in imaging completeness and specificity for both human cells and plant cells clearly shows that these designed probes possess outstanding antipermeability to achieve long-term specific imaging of membrane. These probes also show some advanced features such as ultrafast staining, wash-free merit, favorable biocompatibility, good photostability, and effective resistance to viscosity and pH alteration. This work also provides a valuable design principle for membrane probes of plant cells that the designed probes require a suitable molecular size favoring the penetration of small pores of cell walls.

Classic heavy‐atom effect is well known on traditional luminophores, but its usability for newly developed AIEgens with through‐bond and through‐space conjugation leaves a question open. Herein, an interesting heavy‐atom‐induced emission enhancement against classic heavy‐atom effect is reported by examining unique photophysical behaviors of aggregation‐induced emission (AIE)‐active silole compounds both experimentally and theoretically. It is revealed that heavy atoms exert an insignificant impact on the fluorescence of AIEgens due to their through‐space conjugation nature, and weak intermolecular interactions and heavy‐atom‐caused vibration restriction collaboratively contribute to the emission enhancement of these AIEgens via restricting intramolecular motions. The breaking of classic heavy‐atom effect on silole‐based AIEgens not only proves its usability scope only on through‐bond conjugated dyes, it also provides an effective and simple strategy to dramatically improve the emission efficiency of AIEgens.

Photochromic materials have recently attracted much attention in optoelectronic devices and optical storage systems because of their excellent reversible photoresponse performance. However, most traditional photochromic molecular systems have the limitation...

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