Abstract:The possibility to change the morphology of organic and organometallic materials through mechanical stimulation is emerging as a general and powerful concept for the design of functional materials. In particular the photophysical properties, such as photoluminescence color, quantum yield and emission lifetime of organic and organometallic fluorophores can significantly depend on the molecular packing, enabling the development of molecular materials with mechanoresponsive luminescence characteristics. Indeed, an increasing number of studies have shown in recent years that mechanical force can be utilized to change the molecular arrangement, and thereby the optical response, of luminescent molecular assemblies of π-conjugated organic or organometallic molecules. This report reviews the development of such mechanoresponsive luminescent (MRL) molecular assemblies consisting of organic or organometallic molecules and summarizes emerging trends in this research field.After a brief introduction of mechanoresponsive luminescence observed in molecular assemblies, the concept of "luminescent molecular domino" is introduced, before molecular materials that show turn-on/off of photoluminescence in response to mechanical stimulation are reviewed. Mechanically stimulated multi-color changes and water-soluble MRL materials are also highlighted and approaches that combine the concept of MRL molecular assemblies with other materials types are presented in the last part of this progress report.