A novel emitter: Sensing mechanical stimuli and monitoring total polar materials in frying oil

Abstract A novel multifunctional D-A type triphenylamine derivative (CPA-TPA) was designed and synthesized via Knoevenagel condensation reaction. It was found with distinct aggregation-induced enhanced emission (AEE) characteristics and solvatochromic performance. Interestingly, its crystals showed distinct luminescent responses to anisotropic grinding and isotropic compression. Upon grinding, its orange emission was changed into yellow fluorescence (blue-shift 17 nm from 592 nm), while the orange emission was changed into a red fluorescence upon 30 GPa pressure (red-shift 9 nm). Significantly, both the maximum emission wavelength and fluorescence intensity of the crystalline solid displayed nice linear relationships to pressure. Thus it offered a promising candidate for mechanical stimuli sensing in practical applications. The mechanism of its distinct MFC was discussed by PXRD, DSC and XRSD experiments. Furthermore, it was found that CPA-TPA presented a hypersensitive response to viscosity, so an efficient quantitative determination method for total polar materials (TPM) in frying oil was established.