Red to near-infrared piezochromism from AIE-active luminophores: isolated dimers facilitating a wide-range redshift

An AIE-activity architecture with HLCT and highly bright fluorescence was developed and it was the dispersed dimer packing found to be attributable to cholesteryl units. During compression, the dispersed dimers presented a remarkable redshift (157 nm) and high sensitivity (22.1 nm GPa −1 ).