Intense Circularly Polarized Fluorescence and Room-Temperature Phosphorescence in Carbon Dots/Chiral Helical Polymer Composite Films

ACS Nano. 2023 Apr 11;17(7):6912-6921. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.3c00713. Epub 2023 Mar 31.

Abstract

Chiral carbon dots (C-dots) with a circularly polarized fluorescence (CPF) property have attracted tremendous attention due to their significant applications in chiral optoelectronics and theranostics. However, constructing circularly polarized room-temperature phosphorescent (CPRTP) C-dots remains a great challenge. Herein, a strategy is established to achieve efficient CPF and CPRTP emissions in C-dots/chiral helical polymer bilayer composite film. Taking advantage of the chiral filter effect of chiral helical polymer, intense CPF and CPRTP emissions with large dissymmetric factors up to 1.4 × 10-1 and 1.2 × 10-2 are respectively obtained, even though there is only a simple interface contact between the C-dots layer and the chiral helical polymer layer. More importantly, white-color CPF emission and multiple information display and encryption are further realized based on the prepared chiral luminescent composite films.

Keywords: carbon dots; chiral helical polymer; circularly polarized fluorescence; circularly polarized room temperature phosphorescence; room temperature phosphorescence.