Achieving circularly polarized room-temperature phosphorescence inversion via a supramolecular co-assembly strategy

Abstract

The development of a high dissymmetry factor (g_lum) and signal-inverted circularly polarized room-temperature phosphorescence (CP-RTP) materials is significant but arduous. Herein, a supramolecular co-assembly strategy is developed to construct a helical structure system with high g_lum and signal-inverted CP-RTP. A co-assembly system with a homochiral source showed a high |g_lum| value of 2.50 × 10⁻², and displayed signal-inverted CP-RTP triggered by the switchable solvent. This work demonstrates that the variability of co-assembly patterns in different solvent environments leads to the transformation of the helical structure and signal-inverted CP-RTP during supramolecular co-assembly, thus avoiding tedious synthetic routes and harsh separation of enantiomers. With the synergistic effect of electrostatic interaction and host–guest encapsulation, the non-radiative transition caused by free molecular motion is greatly inhibited, while triplet excitons are protected from quenchers, thereby realizing CP-RTP within 1.17 ms. Moreover, benefiting from the temperature-sensitive nature, the co-assembly system could serve as a type of temperature-controlled CP-RTP switch. This system is also applied to construct an ingenious INHIBIT logic gate. This work will provide new perspectives for understanding and regulating CP-RTP in a homochiral source system through a supramolecular co-assembly strategy.