“…MRL materials have received a lot of attention due to their potential applications in fields such as mechanical sensing, anticounterfeit paper, and microphotonic devices. − The alteration of molecular stacking induced by mechanical stimulation is considered the central factor in the appearance of changes in fluorescence emission . In most studies on MRL compounds, the mechanically induced phase can be restored to the initial stacking and the photoluminescence color recovered by heating or vaporization. , Interestingly, some of the materials recover spontaneously without any treatment, a property that, on the one hand, facilitates fast and repetitive switching in some scenarios but, on the other hand, is not conducive to an in-depth study of the photophysical mechanisms behind this mechanically induced phase. − In most of the reported MRL materials with two-color switching, the majority switch back and forth between the crystalline and amorphous states, and most of the amorphous phases have redder and weaker fluorescence emission. , In the study of some aggregation-induced emission (AIE) materials, face-to-face stacking between benzene rings results in weak luminescence, while fluorescence emission was turned on after milling into the amorphous state. − The fluorescence emission of very few AIE materials varies from bright (crystalline) to even brighter (amorphous) under mechanical stimulation. − For the classical AIE material tetraphenylethylene (TPE), a different phenomenon exists, whereby a fluorescence emission that is brighter than the crystalline phase and in a metastable state is clearly observed by modulating the content of the undesirable solvents but has never been observed in mechanical treatments. − This metastable TPE is most likely an amorphous aggregate, and deeply studying this basic scientific question will help to understand further the relationship between the molecular stacking mode and luminescence efficiency and improve the photophysical mechanism behind TPE.…”