Lighting up rotaxanes with AIEgens

Aiming at the construction of novel rotaxanes with desired luminescent properties for practical applications, recently the rapid development of rotaxanes decorated with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) luminogens (i.e., AIEgens) has been witnessed. The combination of AIEgens and rotaxanes leads to the successful construction of a novel type of luminescent rotaxanes with many attractive features. In particular, the unique controllable dynamic feature of rotaxanes endows the resultant AIEgen-based rotaxanes precisely tunable emissions under external stimuli, leading to the construction of a novel type of smart luminescent materials. In this minireview, the recent progress of AIEgen-based rotaxanes has been summarized, with an emphasis on the design strategy and potential applications.