Practical Enantioselective Synthesis of Chiroptical Polymers of Intrinsic Microporosity with Circular Polarized Luminescence

Polymers with intrinsic microporosity (PIMs) have recently received increasing interest in the fields of gas separation, sensors, catalysts, and so on, due to their high microporosity and good solution processability. However, PIMs with chiral backbones are quite limited, which undoubtedly hinders their applications in many areas such as chiral separation and optoelectronics. Herein, the catalytic enantioselective synthesis of a novel cyclohexyl-fused spirobiindane-based chiral PIM is described. This novel polymer exhibits high intrinsic microporosity (S-BET = 796 m(2) g(-1)), solubility, and good film formability. Its macroscopic chirality of the twist-bend structure was confirmed by circular dichroism. More interestingly, circular polarized luminescence (CPL) was observed for the first time in PIMs; also, to our best knowledge, this is the first nonconjugated porous CPL polymer, opening the door to explore new research fields of PIM materials, as well as providing new guidance for CPL polymer design.

Automated summary

The newly developed cyclohexyl-fused spirobiindane-based chiral PIM exhibits high intrinsic microporosity, good solubility, and film formability, with macroscopic chirality confirmed by the twist-bend structure. Circular polarized luminescence (CPL) was observed for the first time in PIMs, marking the discovery of the first nonconjugated porous CPL polymer and opening up new research fields for PIM materials.