Aggregation-Induced Emission-Enhanced Conjugated Polymer Supramolecular Network: An Efficient Light-Harvesting System with Ultrahigh Reactive Oxygen Species Generation Efficiency

Photodynamic therapy has some unique characteristics, such as ease of operation, high spatiotemporal selectivity, significant effectiveness, and low toxicity and side effects. Therefore, it has emerged in many treatment approaches and has become a highly anticipated potential solution. This therapy can use photosensitizers to transfer light energy to oxygen (3O2), ultimately generating singlet oxygen (1O2), and targeting cell apoptosis, and is considered an excellent alternative to traditional cancer treatments. However, the easy preparation of therapeutic materials with long-wavelength bright fluorescence emission, high reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation capability, and excellent tumor cell targeting remains a technical challenge. This study reports a new strategy for constructing supramolecular assemblies with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristics through host–guest interactions and hydrophobic interactions, using a polymer host containing a pillar[5]arene unit and a near-infrared luminescent guest molecule. Due to the formation of supramolecular cross-linking, an excellent ROS generation efficiency was achieved, which is four times that of commonly used photosensitizers (such as Ce6). This achievement not only enriches the application scenarios of AIE molecules but also provides a new feasible direction for the innovation and upgrading of cancer therapeutic drugs.