Multifaceted regulation of chiroptical properties and self‐assembly behaviors of chiral fluorescent polymers
Youling He,
Junqian Zhang,
Chaoyang Ma,
Junkai Liu,
Jingjing Guo,
Ting Han,
Rongrong Hu,
Bing Shi Li,
Ben Zhong Tang
Affiliations
Youling He
Center for AIE Research Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Polymer Science and Technology Guangdong Research Center for Interfacial Engineering of Functional Materials Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of New Energy Materials Service Safety College of Materials Science and Engineering Shenzhen University Shenzhen Guangdong China
Junqian Zhang
Key Laboratory of New Lithium‐Ion Battery and Mesoporous Material College of Chemistry and Environmental Engineering Shenzhen University Shenzhen Guangdong China
Chaoyang Ma
Key Laboratory of New Lithium‐Ion Battery and Mesoporous Material College of Chemistry and Environmental Engineering Shenzhen University Shenzhen Guangdong China
Junkai Liu
Department of Chemistry Hong Kong Branch of Chinese National Engineering Research Center for Tissue Restoration and Reconstruction The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Clear Water Bay Kowloon Hong Kong China
Jingjing Guo
School of Chemistry Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology Nanyang Technological University 21 Nanyang Link Nanyang Singapore
Ting Han
Center for AIE Research Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Polymer Science and Technology Guangdong Research Center for Interfacial Engineering of Functional Materials Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of New Energy Materials Service Safety College of Materials Science and Engineering Shenzhen University Shenzhen Guangdong China
Rongrong Hu
State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Luminescence from Molecular Aggregates South China University of Technology Guangzhou Guangdong China
Bing Shi Li
Key Laboratory of New Lithium‐Ion Battery and Mesoporous Material College of Chemistry and Environmental Engineering Shenzhen University Shenzhen Guangdong China
Ben Zhong Tang
Department of Chemistry Hong Kong Branch of Chinese National Engineering Research Center for Tissue Restoration and Reconstruction The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Clear Water Bay Kowloon Hong Kong China
Abstract The multifaceted regulation of the chiroptical properties and self‐assembly behaviors of chiral fluorescent polymers is of great significance yet remains challenging to achieve. Herein, a series of novel salen‐based chiral fluorescent polymers with aggregation‐induced emission and varied substitution manners were facilely and efficiently synthesized. Multiple factors were systematically investigated on the chiroptical properties and self‐assembly performance of these polymers, which include molecular structures, solvent environments, metal coordination, and liquid crystal (LC) assemblies. Sutle change in the solvent composition can lead to diverse assembly morphologies of all these chiral polymers, from single‐handed helical fibers, helical toroids or loops, to spherical structures, consequently leading to an aggregation‐reduced circular dichroism (CD) phenomenon. The polymers bearing salen units show highly selective and reversible coordination with Zn2+ and can also induce multiple responses in the absorption, luminescence, CD, and circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) of these chiral fluorescent polymers via a coordination‐ and dissociation‐initiated self‐assembly tuning. Furthermore, a small amount of the chiral fluorescent polymer in can induce achiral nematic 4‐cyano‐4′‐n‐pentylbiphenyl (5CB) to form ordered chiral nematic LC phase with significant improvement in their CD and CPL signal. The absolute absorption and luminescent dissymmetry factors of the resulting supramolecular assemblies can reach the order of 10−1.
