skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Title: Achieving high circularly polarized luminescence with push–pull helicenic systems: from rationalized design to top-emission CP-OLED applications
While the development of chiral molecules displaying circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) has received considerable attention, the corresponding CPL intensity, g lum, hardly exceeds 10 −2 at the molecular level owing to the difficulty in optimizing the key parameters governing such a luminescence process. To address this challenge, we report here the synthesis and chiroptical properties of a new family of π-helical push–pull systems based on carbo[6]helicene, where the latter acts as either a chiral electron acceptor or a donor unit. This comprehensive experimental and theoretical investigation shows that the magnitude and relative orientation of the electric ( μe ) and magnetic (μ m ) dipole transition moments can be tuned efficiently with regard to the molecular chiroptical properties, which results in high g lum values, i.e. up to 3–4 × 10 −2 . Our investigations revealed that the optimized mutual orientation of the electric and magnetic dipoles in the excited state is a crucial parameter to achieve intense helicene-mediated exciton coupling, which is a major contributor to the obtained strong CPL. Finally, top-emission CP-OLEDs were fabricated through vapor deposition, which afforded a promising g El of around 8 × 10 −3 . These results bring about further molecular design guidelines to reach high CPL intensity and offer new insights into the development of innovative CP-OLED architectures.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1855470
PAR ID:
10253416
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Chemical Science
Volume:
12
Issue:
15
ISSN:
2041-6520
Page Range / eLocation ID:
5522 to 5533
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. The rationalization of the molecular parameters that influence the intensity and sign of circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) for chiral emitters is a challenging task and remains of high interest for future chiral optoelectronic applications. In this report, we explore the design of novel chiral donor–acceptor structures based on C 2 -symmetric bicarbazole systems and compare the influence of the type of chirality, namely axial versus helical, and the electron withdrawing strength of the acceptor units on the resulting photophysical and CPL properties. By using carbonyl-based acceptors with both axial and helical electron donors, CP-Thermally Activated Delayed Fluoresence (TADF) can be obtained, whose efficiency depends on the dihedral angle between the carbazole moieties, related to the axial and helical chirality of the compounds. The latter also impacts the intensity of the CPL, which shows an opposite trend as a function of the polarity of the solvent, with a notably strong increase of the luminescence dissymmetry factor, g lum , for the helical donor–acceptor compounds related to a subtle reoarganization of the intramolecular charge-transfer process. 
    more » « less
  2. Abstract Magnetic fields are uniquely valuable for creating colloidal nanostructured materials, not only providing a means for controlled synthesis but also guiding their self‐assembly into distinct superstructures. In this study, a magnetothermal process for synthesizing hybrid nanostructures comprising ferrimagnetic magnetite nanorods coated with fluorescent perovskite nanocrystals is reported and their magnetic assembly into superstructures capable of emitting linear and circularly polarized light are demonstrated. Under UV excitation, the superstructures assembled in a liner magnetic field produce linear polarized luminescence, and those assembled in a chiral magnetic field exhibit strong circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) with aglumvalue up to 0.44 (±0.004). The CPL is believed to originate from the dipolar interaction between neighboring perovskite nanocrystals attached to the chiral assemblies and the chiral‐selective absorption of the perovskite emission by the magnetite phase. The magnetic synthesis and assembly approaches and the resulting distinctive chiral superstructures are anticipated to open up new avenues for designing diverse functional chiroptical devices. 
    more » « less
  3. Abstract Circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) from chiral molecules is attracting much attention due to its potential use in optical materials. However, formulation of CPL emitters as molecular solids typically deteriorates photophysical properties in the aggregated state leading to quenching and unpredictable changes in CPL behavior impeding materials development. To circumvent these shortcomings, a supramolecular approach can be used to isolate cationic dyes in a lattice of cyanostar‐anion complexes that suppress aggregation‐caused quenching and which we hypothesize can preserve the synthetically‐crafted chiroptical properties. Herein, we verify that supramolecular assembly of small‐molecule ionic isolation lattices (SMILES) allows translation of molecular ECD and CPL properties to solids. A series of cationic helicenes that display increasing chiroptical response is investigated. Crystal structures of three different packing motifs all show spatial isolation of dyes by the anion complexes. We observe the photophysical and chiroptical properties of all helicenes are seamlessly translated to water soluble nanoparticles by the SMILES method. Also, a DMQA helicene is used as FRET acceptor in SMILES nanoparticles of intensely absorbing rhodamine antennae to generate an 18‐fold boost in CPL brightness. These features offer promise for reliably accessing bright materials with programmable CPL properties. 
    more » « less
  4. Synthesis of two dithia[9]helicenes by means of a LED-based double photocyclization is reported. The compounds have sulfur atoms placed at the terminal rings of the helicene, and they display two alternative C 2 -symmetrical arrangements named exo (1) and endo (2). Separation of enantiomers of opposite helicity allowed the complete characterization in solution, in silico , by X-ray crystallography, and adsorbed on gold. The theoretical analysis confirms the unexpected finding that endo -dithia[9]helicene displays an experimental dissymmetry factor ( g lum ) in CPL larger than its isomer exo -dithia[9]helicene (–0.0125 vs. −0.0042). This enhanced g lum factor ranks among the largest for a helicene-type molecule. Comparison with smaller analogues, namely exo and endo -dithia[7]helicenes (10 and 11, respectively), is also presented. 
    more » « less
  5. Abstract Strong circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) at 1550 nm is reported for lanthanide complexes supported by Vanol; these are the first examples of coordination of Vanol to lanthanides. A change in the ligand design from a 1,1’‐bi‐2‐naphthol (in Binol) to a 2,2’‐bi‐1‐naphthol (in Vanol) results in significantly improved dissymmetry factors for (Vanol)3ErNa3(|glum|=0.64) at 1550 nm. This is among the highest reported dissymmetry factors to date in the telecom C‐band region, and among the highest for any lanthanide complexes. Comparative solid‐state structural analysis of (Vanol)3ErNa3and (Binol)3ErNa3suggests that a less distorted geometry around the metal center is in part responsible for the high chiroptical metrics of (Vanol)3ErNa3. This phenomenon was further evidenced in the analogous ytterbium complex (Vanol)3YbNa3that also exhibit a significantly improved dissymmetry factor (|glum|=0.21). This confirms and generalizes the same observation that was made in other visibly emitting, six‐coordinate lanthanide complexes. Due to their strong CPL at 1550 nm, the reported complexes are potential candidates for applications in quantum communication technologies. More importantly, our structure‐CPL activity relationship study provides guidance towards the generation of even better near‐infrared CPL emitters. 
    more » « less