Full-Color Tunable Circularly Polarized Luminescence Induced by the Crystal Defect from the Co-assembly of Chiral Silver(I) Clusters and Dyes

Four pairs of defective crystals exhibiting full-color emission and circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) with high luminescence dissymmetry factor (g(lum)) values (similar to 3 x 10(-3)) were successfully obtained by doping dye molecules into the chiral crystalline metal cluster-based matrixes. The dye molecules function as defect inducers and confer fluorescence on the crystals. Studies reveal that electrostatic interactions provide the main impetus in generating defective crystals, and the restricted effect of chiral space and the weak interactions in defect crystal enable the efficient chiral transfer from the intrinsically chiral host silver(I) clusters to achiral luminescent dopants and finally induce them to emit bright CPL. This defect engineering strategy opens a new way to versatile functions for crystalline cluster-based materials.

Automated summary

This study successfully obtained four pairs of defective crystals exhibiting full-color emission and circularly polarized luminescence by doping dye molecules into the chiral crystalline metal cluster-based matrixes. The main driving force for generating defective crystals was found to be electrostatic interactions. The defect engineering strategy in this study opens up new possibilities for versatile functions in crystalline cluster-based materials.