Issue 28, 2019

Boosting the circularly polarized luminescence of small organic molecules via multi-dimensional morphology control

Abstract

Achieving a higher dissymmetry factor is a crucial issue in developing circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) materials. Here, by tailoring the solvent composition and the morphology of the same chiral emissive small molecules (R- or S-SPAn), circularly polarized emission with a boosted dissymmetry factor (two orders) was realized. It was found that by regulating the water fraction in the mixed THF/H2O, we were able to achieve kinetic control over association of chiral emissive R- or S-SPAn into various nanostructures with 0D nanospheres, 2D nanoflakes and 3D stacked nanoflakes. These nanostructures are all CPL active. Remarkably, the dissymmetry factors of the nanostructures were significantly enhanced compared to those of the molecules and further boosted in different morphologies, from ∼10−4 (0D nanospheres) to 10−3 (2D flake) to ∼10−2 (3D nanoflakes). The enlarged glum value could be assigned to a good packing induced strong luminescence of an excimer. This strategy provides an efficient way to fabricate higher dissymmetry factor CPL organic nanomaterials by only changing the supramolecular architectures while using the same chiral small molecules.

Graphical abstract: Boosting the circularly polarized luminescence of small organic molecules via multi-dimensional morphology control

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
01 Apr 2019
Accepted
01 Jun 2019
First published
04 Jun 2019
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2019,10, 6821-6827

Boosting the circularly polarized luminescence of small organic molecules via multi-dimensional morphology control

K. Ma, W. Chen, T. Jiao, X. Jin, Y. Sang, D. Yang, J. Zhou, M. Liu and P. Duan, Chem. Sci., 2019, 10, 6821 DOI: 10.1039/C9SC01577A

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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