Activatable triplet-triplet annihilation upconversion was achieved using aminomethyleneanthracene derivatives. The molecular structures of the anthracene derivatives were varied by changing the number of phenyl substituents on the anthracene core (A-1, A-2 and A-3 containing no phenyl, one and two phenyl substituents, respectively). The structural modifications tune the intersystem crossing (ISC), the fluorescence as well as the distance between the electron donor (amino group) and the fluorophore by using methylene (A-1 and A-2) or a benzyl moiety (A-3) as a linker. Triplet-triplet annihilation upconversion is mainly tuned by photoinduced electron transfer (PET). Hence, the fluorescence of A-1 and A-2 can be switched on by protonation or acetylation of the amino group, whereas A-3 gives persistent strong fluorescence. Determination of the Gibbs free energy changes indicated significantly different PET driving forces for the three compounds. The mechanism of the fluorescence switching was studied with steady state UV−vis absorption, fluorescence emission spectroscopy, nanosecond transient absorption spectroscopy and ab initio computations. We found that the PET exerts different quenching effects on the singlet and triplet excited states of the anthracene derivatives.The triplet-triplet annihilation upconversion using these compounds as triplet acceptors/emitter was studied as well, and it was found that upconversion can be switched on by inhibition of the PET through acetylation and protonation.synthesis. Indeed, a large panel of triplet photosensitizers 16−19 and acceptors have been developed for TTA upconversion. 1−5,20 TTA upconversion has already been applied in various research field, e.g., luminescence bioimaging, 21 photocatalysis 22 and photovoltaics. 23−27 However, activatable, or switchable TTA upconversion was rarely studied. Indeed, recently we developed photoswitchable TTA upconversion using a photochromic unit, e.g., dithienylethene (DTE). 28−30 However, to the very best of our knowledge, chemically-activatable TTA upconversion was never demonstrated before. Clearly, external stimuli-addressable TTA upconversion adds additional flexibility for the application of TTA upconversion, such as in super resolution fluorescence microscopy, 31 and its development is a major improvement.In this framework, we report herein a new chemical-activatable TTA upconversion with aminoanthracene derivatives as triplet acceptor/emitter (A-1, A-2 and A-3, see Scheme 1). The fluorescence of these anthracene derivatives was quenched by the photo-induced electron transfer (PET) from the amino group to the anthracene core (A-1 and A-2), 32,33 and is also modulated via intersystem crossing (ISC). Our conclusions are supported by the negative Gibbs free energy changes (∆G 0 CS ) of the PET processes 34 and by computational investigations. Interruption of the PET by acetylation of the amino group of the triplet acceptor switches on the TTA upconversion.Interestingly, we found that the singlet excited state of the anthracene ...