Nonconventional Fluorescence-Based Circularly Polarized Luminescent Core/Shell Particles: Maleic Anhydride Copolymer as the Core and Chiral Helical Polyacetylene as the Shell

Chiroptical micro/nanomaterials with circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) properties have aroused ever-increasing attention. However, the variety of such materials is seriously limited in self-assembly systems from small organic molecules. Herein, we report an unprecedented, facile strategy to achieve monodispersed polymer-based CPL-active core/shell particles using maleic anhydride copolymer as core and chiral helical polyacetylene as shell. Noticeably, the obtained core/shell particles carry no conventional fluorescent units, but can show intense blue-emitting nonconventional fluorescence with both aggregation-induced emission and concentration-enhanced emis-sion performance. In particular, it is interesting that excitation-dependent CPL emission behavior is further observed in the core/shell particles, with the highest luminescence dissymmetry factor of 5 x 10-3. The present work provides a versatile platform with wide universality for constructing polymeric CPL nano/ microarchitectures.

Automated summary

We report a novel and facile strategy to achieve monodispersed polymer-based circularly polarized luminescent (CPL) micro/nanomaterials. The core/shell particles obtained using maleic anhydride copolymer as core and chiral helical polyacetylene as shell exhibit intense blue-emitting nonconventional fluorescence with both aggregation-induced emission and concentration-enhanced emission performance. Furthermore, these particles show excitation-dependent CPL emission behavior, with the highest luminescence dissymmetry factor of 5 x 10-3. This work provides a versatile platform for constructing polymeric CPL nano/microarchitectures.