The multinational Taiwanese and Japanese research and development team comprised the research team led by Associate Professor Ming-Chia Li at the Department of Biological Science & Technology at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU), the research team led by Associate Professor Tomoyasu HIRAI at Osaka Institute of Technology and the Professor Teruaki Hayakawa at Tokyo Institute of Technology and worked collectively to place fluorescent molecules and solvents into helical nanosized fused quartz containers. By changing the solvent in the luminophore-containing nanosized fused quartz cell, the wavelength of the CPL was controlled. This method provides an effective strategy for designing novel CPL-active materials in application fields such as 3D displays, nano drug carriers, and quantum computers, etc.
Associate Professor Ming-Chia Li explained that this research is an extension on the basis of the 2021 research results (Li et al. JACS Au. 2021, 1, 375). A strategy to obtain chiral silica using an achiral stereoregular polymer with polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) side chains is described herein. The preferred helical conformation of the POSS-containing polymer could be achieved by mixing isotactic polymethacrylate-functionalized POSS (it-PMAPOSS) and a chiral dopant. The array structure of POSS molecules, which are placed along the helical conformation, is memorized even after removing the chiral dopant at high temperatures, leading to a helical nanosized fused quartz cell consisting of chiral silica after calcination. The chiral silica encapsulated functional molecules, including luminophores, along the helical nanocavity, leading to induced circular dichroism (ICD) and induced circularly polarized luminescence (iCPL). Because chiral silica can act as a helical nanosized fused quartz cell, it can encapsulate not only the luminophore but also solvent molecules. By changing the solvent in the luminophore-containing nanosized fused quartz cell, the wavelength of the CPL from blue to green was controlled. This method provides an effective strategy for designing novel CPL-active materials in applications such as 3D displays, nano drug carriers, quantum computers, etc.
This important research result was published in JACS Au” with the article titled “Controlling Circularly Polarized Luminescence Using Helically Structured Chiral Silica as a Nanosized Fused Quartz Cell” (Li et al. JACS Au. 2023, 3, 2698). The innovative perspectives and research breakthroughs of this research resulted in a high click-through rate and was downloaded by global researchers in relevant research fields in the past month. This article is not only the MOST Read journal article (the journal’s Top 20 most downloaded articles for the previous 30 days) but was selected as the cover story of JACS Au in November.
NYCU stated that the research received long-term support from the National Science and Technology Council Program, the Ministry of Education’s Higher Education Sprout Project, and the NYCU Center for Intelligent Drug Systems and Smart Bio-devices. The research results were published in the prestigious academic journal JACS Au.
Complete Thesis: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacsau.3c00390