Non-aromatic fluorescent materials with inherent visible light emission have received widespread attention. In this work, a biomimetic fluorescent molecule CA-AEP with a dipeptide structure is introduced. CA-AEP will emit bright biomimetic fluorescence in aqueous solutions by adjusting the pH, which has never been reported. This unique luminescent characteristic can be rationalized by the clustering-triggered emission (CTE) mechanism. In addition, CA-AEP can be used to monitor the maximum dynamic pH in the alkaline range of aqueous systems. Finally, the cytotoxicity assay to A549 cells showed that CA-AEP was non-toxic. Therefore, this work provides a new type of luminogen, which has potential application prospects in the field of environmental monitoring and cell biology.

具有固有的可见光发射的非芳族荧光材料已受到广泛关注。在这项工作中，介绍了一种具有二肽结构的仿生荧光分子CA-AEP。CA-AEP可以通过调节pH值在水溶液中发出明亮的仿生荧光，这从未有过报道。可以通过簇触发发射（CTE）机制使这种独特的发光特性合理化。此外，CA-AEP可用于监测水性系统碱性范围内的最大动态pH值。最后，对A549细胞的细胞毒性试验表明，CA-AEP无毒。因此，这项工作提供了一种新型的发光剂，在环境监测和细胞生物学领域具有潜在的应用前景。