Tetraphenylethylene-based conjugated polymers with valine-containing side chains: Aggregation-induced emission, helical self-assembly, complexation-induced circularly polarized luminescence

Realizing high circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) in polymer system is an important but challenging task. Herein, we provide a strategy for designing conjugated polymers with high CPL performance upon the complexation with mandelic acids. Two tetraphenylethylene (TPE)-based conjugated polymers, l-P1 and d-P1, were synthesized by Sonogashira polycoupling reactions between the TPE-containing diethynyl monomer and dibromo aryl monomers carrying valine methyl ester groups. Both the polymers showed aggregation-induced emission (AIE) properties and the capabilities to self-assemble into regular helical nanostructures on nanoscale and fluorescent microfibers on microscale. They exhibited weak circular dichroism (CD) signals; upon the complexation with R/S-mandelic acids, their CD absorption and fluorescence emission can be efficiently enhanced. The composite films of l/d-P1 and R/S-mandelic acids exhibited excellent complexation-induced CPL properties with the absolute luminescence dissymmetric factor (glum) up to 0.01 and the fluorescence quantum yield up to 26.8%; the glum values showed little dependence on their emission wavelength. Various types of carboxyl acids have been screened and only mandelic acids show significantly chiroptical induction. The specific interaction between mandelic acids and l/d-P1 also makes the latter promising candidates for the enantioselective recognition of chiral organic molecules.