Applications of aie to molecular recognition: Why is it superior to unimolecular recognition?

Self-assembly has been utilized for the spontaneous formation of nanoarchitectures. Therein, a small change in the molecular structure dramatically alters the resulting macroscopic self-assembly morphologies and the consequent material properties. This macroscopic expression of the small initial difference via self-assembly can be alternatively regarded as precise translation of molecular structural information. In this chapter, we offer a novel molecular recognition concept utilizing self-assembly phenomena. A small difference in guest structures affords distinctly different self-assembly modes of fluorescent (FL) chemosensors and leads to their sensory responses characteristic of the guest structures. Thus, self-assembly has now been utilized as a FL sensory system for molecular recognition, particularly, of biologically important molecules and macromolecules. Through these studies, we wish to demonstrate why the AIE-based recognition is superior to that of unimolecule-based recognition.