Diphenylamine, phenothiazine or carbazole were introduced into Tröger'sbase skeleton via Ullmann or Suzuki coupling to afford new TB derivatives. Their optical properties tests, density functional theory (B3LYP; 6-31G*) calculations were investigated. Incidentally anti-cancer activity against human hepatoma HepG2 cells in vitro (MTT assay) were investigated. All the results indicated that these novel
skeleton under guidance of theoretical calculation to obtain several novel derivatives with predicted good solid-state luminescence. The results of their fluorescence properties indicated that they exhibited a typical aggregation-inducedemission (AIE) behavior which is virtually nonemissive in solution but highly luminescent (500–550 nm, yellow–green light) in the solid state. 5a was then chosen as an example