This review summarizes the progress of AIE polymers in sensing, imaging and theranostic applications in the recent 3 years, and the perspective and future development of AIE polymers are discussed briefly.
Aggregation-induced emission (AIE) has become a hot research topic in chemistry and materials science. AIE polymers integrate the advantages of polymeric materials and AIE luminogens and show unique properties compared with traditional fluorophores and low-mass AIE materials for practical applications. In this review, we briefly summarize the progress of AIE polymers in sensing, imaging and theranostic applications in the last 3 years. It is hoped that this review will accelerate the development of these promising materials and serve as a trigger for future innovation in related research.