

FOLLOWUS
Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Science, Key Laboratory of Polymer Chemistry and Physics of the Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
jz10@pku.edu.cn
Received:07 May 2026,
Accepted:24 June 2026,
Online First:03 August 2026,
Published:05 September 2026
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Huang, Y. H.; Guan, J.; Yu, J. Q.; Wan, X. H.; Zhang, J. Tunable circularly polarized luminescence of helical poly(phenylacetylene)s via side-chain-to-backbone förster resonance energy transfer. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. 2026, 44, 2909–2917
Yi-Han Huang, Jian Guan, Jia-Qi Yu, et al. Tunable Circularly Polarized Luminescence of Helical Poly(phenylacetylene)s
Huang, Y. H.; Guan, J.; Yu, J. Q.; Wan, X. H.; Zhang, J. Tunable circularly polarized luminescence of helical poly(phenylacetylene)s via side-chain-to-backbone förster resonance energy transfer. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. 2026, 44, 2909–2917 DOI: 10.1007/s10118-026-3795-2.
Yi-Han Huang, Jian Guan, Jia-Qi Yu, et al. Tunable Circularly Polarized Luminescence of Helical Poly(phenylacetylene)s
Donor-functionalized helical poly(phenylacetylene)s achieved tunable circularly polarized luminescence through side-chain-to-backbone Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET). Pyrene pendants undergo chiral ordering and transfer excitation energy to the emissive helical backbone
producing an amplified film CPL with a |
g
lum
| value of 7×10
−2
whereas triphenylamine pendants enable helical-conformation-responsive blue-green switching.
Intrinsically emissive helical poly(phenylacetylene)s (PPAs) are attractive circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) materials
yet their color tunability and light-harvesting capability remain limited because the emission mainly originates from the backbone excited states. Herein
we construct side-chain/backbone bichromophoric PPA systems to investigate Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) and its effect on CPL performance. Using a pentafluorophenyl ester-functionalized
PPA-PFP
as a common precursor
planar aromatic donors
pyrene (Py) and naphthalene (Nap)
and a non-coplanar donor
triphenylamine (TPA)
were systematically introduced through activated-ester amidation.
Py-PPA
and
Nap-PPA
both underwent efficient donor-to-backbone energy transfer to the emissive
cis-cisoid
helical backbone
while
Py-PPA
showed a higher FRET efficiency and a much more pronounced so
lid-state CPL enhancement
with a |
g
lum
| value of 7×10
−2
in the film. In contrast
TPA-PPA
exhibited conformation-coupled FRET attenuation and emission color switching because the bulky twisted donor destabilized the
cis-cisoid
backbone. Further spectroscopic and diffraction studies revealed that the superior CPL performance of
Py-PPA
originated from the synergistic combination of stronger pendant chiral ordering and more efficient side-chain-to-backbone energy transfer during solution aging and film formation. These results show that donor-pendant modification is an effective way to regulate FRET and CPL in intrinsically emissive PPA systems.
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