Chiral emergence in the self-assembly of achiral poly(3-alkylthiophene)s

Abstract

Symmetry breaking is difficult to achieve in achiral systems as nonselective supramolecular self-assembly typically results in racemic mixtures. Here, we report a novel finding of spontaneous supramolecular chiral formation in achiral poly(3-alkylthiophene) (P3AT). Our results establish a valid approach for generating circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) properties from achiral polymers.