Circularly polarized luminescence polymers: From design to applications

Circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) materials have received extensive interest due to their unique optical activity. An increasing number of research endeavors were focused on molecular design of excellent CPL materials to meet the requirement of optoelectronic applications in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), chiral sensing, information encryption, etc. CPL-active polymeric materials have demonstrated promising potential rooted in their superiority in scalability, flexibility, 3D-stacking capability and film-forming property. In this review, we survey and outline the development of CPL-active polymers focused on the polymer structure-dependent design strategy, including chiral side chain polymers, chiral main chain polymers, chiral coordination polymers and chiral induction systems involving polymer. We also highlight the recent applications of CPL-active polymers to make a clear statement about realistic significance. It is our hope that the system view of CPL-active polymer almost in the last ten years will offer new insights and inspirations in developing excellent polymers and promote the use of efficient and versatile CPL materials.