POS4-1284
Spindle-Shaped Hierarchical Polymeric Microparticles as Chiral Templates for Full-Color CPL
Topic
S4. Colloids, Interfaces, and Molecular Assemblies for Functional Soft Materials
When and Where
Sep 29, 2026
08:30 - 09:30
Room 301 (Grand Ballroom)
Session Chairs
Hae Jung SON
Boseok KANG
Presenter(s)
Geunjung LEE (KAIST)
Co-Author(s)
Abstract
Circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) is an important optical functionality for chiral photonics, advanced display technologies, and information security. However, conventional organic CPL systems often depend on intrinsically chiral luminophores or structurally fragile supramolecular assemblies, limiting their color tunability, mechanical stability, and processability. Here, we introduce hierarchical polymeric microparticles (HPMs) as robust solid-state chiral optical templates capable of imparting CPL activity to achiral emitters across the visible spectrum. The HPMs are fabricated through emulsion photopolymerization of liquid-crystalline droplets containing a polymerizable mesogen, an extractable non-polymerizable mesogen, and a small amount of an enantiomeric chiral dopant, followed by selective removal of the non-polymerizable component. This extraction-induced structural transformation converts the polymerized droplets into spindle-shaped microparticles with hierarchical chiral organization. Enantiomeric R- and S-type chiral dopants produce single-handed R-HPMs and S-HPMs, respectively, whereas racemic HPMs exhibit negligible net CPL activity. The chiroptical response is strongly dependent on particle morphology, with higher-aspect-ratio HPMs generating enhanced CPL from incorporated achiral luminophores. By employing optimized HPM templates, achiral blue-, green-, and red-emissive dyes are transformed into full-color CPL materials that display mirror-image signals in R- and S-HPMs. The CPL-active particles can further be formulated into printable inks for the fabrication of three-dimensional architectures and circular-polarization-dependent anti-counterfeiting patterns. These results establish liquid-crystal-derived HPMs as durable and processable chiral optical templates for generating full-color CPL from achiral emitters.
