Nontraditional intrinsic luminescent (NTIL) polymers
are an emerging
class of luminescent polymer materials, and the molecular design of
novel NTIL polymer luminogens is highly desirable. Here, a series
of aggregation-induced emission (AIE) type NTIL polymers, including
polytriphenylmethyl azide, polyfluorotriphenylmethyl azide,
polydifluorotriphenylmethyl azide, polychlorotriphenylmethyl
azide, and polydichlorotriphenylmethyl azide, have been synthesized
through reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT)
polymerization-induced emission (PIE) successfully. Investigations
reveal that the triphenylmethyl azide moiety is a novel PIE luminogen
for the molecular design of NTIL polymers, where triphenylmethyl azide
is nonemissive but triphenylmethyl azide-containing polymers are emissive.
Further applications were performed for explosive detection and luminescence
energy transfer applications. Therefore, this work expands the molecular
structure library of NTIL and AIE materials that might cause inspirations
in different fields including click chemistry, living polymerization,
PIE, AIE, and NTIL.