The Classification of Electrofluorochromism Materials and Color Change Mechanisms

Electrofluorochromism(EFC) refers to a phenomenon that luminescence color of materials can be tuned by the application of an extra electric field, of which the fluorescence is generally switched between ON/OFF or different colors under an electrical stimulus. These materials have received increasing attention because of their extensive applications in ion sensing, information display, bioanalysis, optical imaging, information storage and so on. It is rather remarkable that EFC materials are considered to be prospective smart materials because they can convert electrical signals to more intuitive visual signals. Herein recent research progress in electrofluorochromism field are reviewed, which mainly elaborates the main EFC materials including dyads, fluorophores and polymers(including conjugated polymers) and their emission-color changing mechanism. Structure features of those EFC materials and their functional realization principles in specific applications are highlighted. Those materials have high luminescence contrast, fast response rate, long term stability and exhibit multicolor emissions switching of fluorescence and a number of advantages and have found applications in organic optoelectronic devices field. At the end of the paper, a brief overview of the future directions of this research field is also presented.