Circularly polarized luminescence from cholesteric organic-inorganic hybrid silica films.

Chiroptical functional materials with circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) properties have drawn increasing interest for their potential applications in optoelectronics and chiral sensing. However, the development of CPL materials with both large luminescence dissymmetry (g lum) factors and high quantum yields (Φ F) in solid state is still a challenging task. In this work, organic–inorganic hybrid silica films have been prepared by the in-situ polycondensation of a cholesteric liquid-crystalline organosilane with the addition of a chiral dopant and an aggregation-induced emission (AIE)-active tetraphenylethene (TPE) derivative under an acidic condition. The resulting films emit bright CPL with the absolute g lum values about 0.15, which were mainly caused by the long-range ordered supramolecular helical structure. It is found that the handedness of the CPL was dominated by the selective reflection of the cholesteric liquid crystal films. • Hybrid silica films were prepared by polycondensation of cholesteric liquid-crystalline organosilanes with AIE organosilanes. • The silica films showed good circularly polarized luminescence activity and enhanced fluorescence efficiency. • It was found that the handedness of the CPL was dominated by the selective reflection of cholesteric liquid crystal films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]