Optically Active Upconverting Nanoparticles with Induced Circularly Polarized Luminescence and Enantioselectively Triggered Photopolymerization

Abstract

In this work, lanthanide-doped upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) showing upconverted circularly polarized luminescence were demonstrated in an organic–inorganic co-assembled system. Achiral UCNPs (NaYF4:Yb/Er or NaYF4:Yb/Tm) can be encapsulated into chiral helical nanotubes through the procedure of co-gelation. These co-gel systems display intense upconverted circularly polarized luminescence (UC-CPL) ranging from ultraviolet (UV, 300 nm) to near-infrared (NIR, 850 nm) wavelength. In addition, the UV part of UC-CPL can be used to initiate the enantioselective polymerization of diacetylene.

Circularly Polarized Luminescence in Nanoassemblies: Generation, Amplification, and Application

“…[22] Similarly, this strategy can be applied to endow other inorganic nanomaterials with CPL properties. [21,92] Lanthanidedoped upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs), which can convert low-energy NIR light into high-energy UV or visible light (anti-Stokes shift) through the absorption of two or multiple low-energy photons, [93,94] have found diverse potential applications in many fields. As shown in Figure 8B, two kinds of achiral UCNPs, NaYF4:Yb/Er (UCNPs-Er) and NaYF4:Yb/Tm (UCNPs-Tm), were helically encapsulated into chiral nanotubes.…”

“…Intriguingly, mirror-image UC-CPL signals covering a wide range, from 300 nm (UV part) to 850 nm (near-infrared), were observed. [92] To realize the UC-CPL, the chiral arrangement of UCNPs was found to be critical and necessary. It should be noted that the unequal left-and right-handed UC-CPL were generated at a supramolecular level rather than the UCNPs monomers.…”

Electric‐Field‐Regulated Energy Transfer in Chiral Liquid Crystals for Enhancing Upconverted Circularly Polarized Luminescence through Steering the Photonic Bandgap

“…[ 4 ] In addition, several systems with different kinds of photon upconversion mechanism have been developed, in which the first example of UC‐CPL based on the mechanism of triplet–triplet‐annihilation‐based photon upconversion has revealed that photon upconversion process can significantly amplify the circular polarization. [ 5 ] Besides, lanthanide‐doped upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) were found to emit upconverted circularly polarized light after encapsulated into chiral supramolecular organogels [ 6 ] or cellulose liquid crystals. [ 7 ] Recently, new system of UC‐CPL based on the two‐photon absorption mechanism has been demonstrated in chiral perovskite nanocrystals.…”

Dual-Mode Induction of Tunable Circularly Polarized Luminescence from Chiral Metal-Organic Frameworks

“…Research (~± 1:2 × 10 −2 ) of UC-CPL [12], even some emission peaks showed lower intensity under the same excitation, a distinct CPL signal could be detected (Figure 4(c) and Table S3). Similar to the QD-loaded ZIF, TEM images showed that UCNP:Er was distributed inside the ZIF particles (Figures 4(b) and S34), which indicated that the induced UC-CPL was resulting from the chiral confinement effect of chiral ZIFs.…”

“…Chiral functional materials with circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) have risen to prominence in recent years due to their fascinating properties with wide potential applications in chiral sensors [1,2], photoelectric devices [3][4][5], 3D optical displays [6,7], encrypted storage of information [8,9], and even dissymmetric synthesis [10][11][12]. The general approach to fabricate CPL-active materials is through a covalent bonding of luminophore with a chiral moiety [13][14][15].…”