Work

Chirality induced by supramolecular self-assembly of fluorinated π-conjugated carbon dots for bright circularly polarized electroluminescent light-emitting diodes

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Circularly polarized light-emitting diodes hold great promise for advanced photonic applications such as three-dimensional displays, quantum information processing, and optical spintronics. Carbon dots, owing to their metal-free nature, high stability, and structural versatility, have emerged as attractive alternatives. However, their intrinsic chirality is typically weak due to a lack of precise control over structure and molecular arrangement, and their application in electroluminescent devices has remained unrealized. Here, we report a class of supramolecular assemblies consisting of fluorinated π-conjugated carbon dots. Upon interaction with M/P-[N] hexahelicene as chiral inducers, a directed supramolecular self-assembly is formed via strong electrostatic and hydrogen bonding interactions, yielding a high absorption dissymmetry factor of up to 0.107. More significantly, we demonstrate the devices based on these supramolecular assemblies, achieving a maximum luminance of 9655 cd m−2 and electroluminescent dissymmetry factor value of 0.035. These results mark a significant step toward metal-free chiral optoelectronics and highlight the potential of carbon nanomaterials in next-generation display technologies. Circularly polarized light-emitting diodes (CP-LEDs) using carbon dots are promising but limited by weak intrinsic chirality and lack of controllable structure, hindering applications. Shi et al. create chiral supramolecular CD assemblies enabling CP-LEDs with high dissymmetry and luminance.

Source: Nature Communications

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-75758-3