Supramolecular hydrogen-bonded chiral networks enable blue circularly polarized emission from polymeric carbon quantum dots

Abstract

All-organic circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) emitters acting as intrinsic liquid polarizers provide a promising route to reduce optical crosstalk and enhance spatial resolution in displays by directly emitting circularly polarized light, thereby eliminating external polarizers and minimizing energy loss. Herein, we report a highly efficient, all-organic CPL-active liquid polarizer based on chiral organic binary composites (COBCs), in which camphorquinone-derived chiral inducers are integrated with polymeric carbon quantum dots (PCQDs), opening a previously unexplored pathway toward chiral organic–quantum dot composites. The composites exhibit intense blue emission with a photoluminescence quantum yield of 64 %, and strong enantioselective CPL with luminescence dissymmetry factors (g_(lum ) ≈ ±10-2). Circular dichroism spectroscopy reveals multiple Cotton effects with high absorption anisotropy(g_abs= 1.2×10-2), while time-resolved photoluminescence and electrochemical analyses indicate that hydrogen-bonded chiral networks promote charge transfer and generate intrinsic chiral fields enabling selective CPL emission. A prototype device based on COBCs achieves a spatial resolution of 4 lp/mm, nearly double that of achiral analogues, while effectively suppressing glare and enhancing image contrast. Our findings establish a design strategy for transforming achiral CQDs into CPL-active materials, opening pathways toward next-generation, energy-efficient photonic and display technologies.