In situ observation of heterogeneous catalytic organic reactions via aggregation-induced emission luminogens.

Herein, we demonstrated for the first time that customized aggregation-induced emission luminogens can be utilized to directly visualize heterogeneous catalytic organic reactions, which further enables catalyst screening. We used the retro-Diels-Alder reaction as a model reaction for illustration, and identified montmorillonite K10 as the best catalyst in our catalyst screening.