Circularly polarized luminescence in chiral orientationally ordered soft matter systems

Abstract

Circularly polarized luminescent (CPL) materials have received significant attention in the field of fundamental science recently. These materials offer substantial advancement of technological applications, such as optical data storage, displays, and quantum communication. Various strategies have been proposed in self‐assembled materials consisting of inorganic, organic, and hybrid systems, particularly in the chiral orientationally ordered soft matter systems (e.g., chiral liquid crystals (LCs) and LC polymers). However, developing scientific approaches to achieve the pronounced and steerable circularly polarized light emission remains challenging. Herein, we present a comprehensive review on the recent development of CPL materials based on chiral LCs, including thermotropic LCs (cholesteric LCs and bent‐core LCs), lyotropic LCs (nanocellulose LCs and polyacetylene‐based LCs), and LC polymers (cholesteric LC‐based polymers, helical nanofibers, and helical network). In addition, the fundamental mechanisms, design principles, and potential applications based on these chiral LCs and LC polymers in soft matter systems are systematically reviewed. This review summarizes with a prospect on the latent challenges, which can strengthen our understanding of the basic principles of CPL in chiral orientationally ordered soft matter systems and provide a new insight into the progress in several fields, such as chemistry, materials science, optics, electronics, and biology.

Recent Progress in Bioinspired Design Strategies for Freeze Resistant Hydrogel Platforms toward Flexible Electronics

“…Different from liquid crystal polymers, the crystallization of crystal-type composite gel cannot self-assemble chiral helical superstructure, and thereby lack unique optical properties and stimuli-responsive behaviors. 48,49 Sodium acetate trihydrate, colloquially termed as"hot ice", exhibits a remarkable propensity for supercooling owing to the exothermic nature of its solidification process. 52 Intriguingly, while it possesses a melting point of 58 °C, this compound can sustain its supercooled liquid state under ambient conditions over extended durations, presenting a promising avenue to freezing-resistant hydrogels by a direct dissolution−crystallization mechanism.…”

“…Thus, the crystal-type composite gel electrolyte with dissolution–crystallization strategy allows integrations for a range of distinguished characteristics, including remarkable toughness, enhanced operating voltage, superior interfacial compatibility, and tolerance to extreme temperatures. Different from liquid crystal polymers, the crystallization of crystal-type composite gel cannot self-assemble chiral helical superstructure, and thereby lack unique optical properties and stimuli-responsive behaviors. , …”

Optically Electroactive Polymer Synthesized in a Liquid Crystal with Cyclosporin A─Circularly Polarized Electron Spin Resonance

“…LC materials have been applied to display devices and contribute to digitalization in an information society. Further, circularly polarized light in chiral soft matter systems, such as CLC, has been developed and used in various systems, such as photonic devices for chiral sensing, spintronics for optical communication, optical data storage, and optoelectronic devices …”

Highly Sensitive Detection of Isomers through Dynamic Reflection Spectroscopy Based on Simple Amorphous Photonic Crystals

“…Since photonic crystals (PCs) are introduced by Yablonovich and John in 1987, PCs have attracted increasing attention in recent years because they have wide applications in many areas, such as anticounterfeiting , or camouflage materials, color display, − green printing, − photonic pigment, − optics from liquid crystals (typical 1D PCs), − cell culture, and sensing. − PCs as sensors have attracted considerable interest in detecting biomolecules, , volatile organic compounds, metal ions , viruses, human IgG, glycoprotein, kinase, DNA, and chemical reactions . Because photonic band gaps of PCs are related to effective refractive indices, it is quite difficult to detect homologues and isomers with similar refractive indices.…”