Aggregation induced-emission
(AIE) and antenna effects are important
luminescence behaviors. Thus, investigating their emission mechanisms
and revealing their behaviors have become critical but challenging.
Here we design and prepare metal–organic frameworks (MOFs)
with an AIE ligand (i.e., tetrakis(4-carboxyphenyl)pyrazine (L1)) and Ln3+ ions (including Eu3+,
Tb3+, and Gd3+). The emission from L1 is gradually enhanced during the formation of the MOFs because coordination
restricts the intramolecular rotation. Thus, the emission is called
as coordination-induced emission (CIE) with the same restriction of
intramolecular rotation mechanism as AIE. Meanwhile, benzene rings
twist to adapt to the MOFs’ rigid structure, so the emission
blueshifts gradually, as an additional evidence of CIE. Both AIE and
CIE are “rotation-restricted emission (RRE)”. Eu3+ ions exhibit the strongest emission with gradually enhanced
intensity during the formation of L1-Eu MOF. Combined
with emission properties from Tb3+ and Gd3+ ions,
the antenna effect is verified. We also validate the conditions for
the efficient sensitization of Ln3+ ions experimentally
and refresh the threshold value of the energy gap between triplet
state of a ligand and excited state of Ln3+ ions to 3000
cm–1. Thus, RRE and antenna effects are revealed
and validated simultaneously. Because CIE of L1 and antenna
effect emission from Eu3+ ions are enhanced simultaneously
as strong dual emissions, ratiometric fluorescence detection is realized
with the detection of arginine as a model. Our results incorporate
AIE and CIE into RRE, which provides explicit information for the
construction and application of emission systems with AIE ligands
as building blocks. MOFs are also extended to explore the emission
mechanism and the energy transfer between ligands and metal ions.