Ligand engineering of circularly polarized luminescence inversion and enhancement for chiral Ag6 nanoclusters

Abstract

Coinage metal nanoclusters usually show bright emission, which is useful for obtaining circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) after modifying with chiral organic ligands. However, it remains challenging to understand the chiral transfer and amplification mechanisms and achieve CPL inversion without changing the absolute configuration of the chiral ligands. Here, we present four pairs of six-core silver nanoclusters protected by the chiral thiazinthione- and oxazinthione-based ligands, showing S⋯S interaction-enhanced luminescence quantum yield (QY) and supramolecular chirality inversion induced by the peripheral methyl and phenyl groups in both ground and excited states.