Circularly polarized luminescence pyrene materials: From design to applications

Circularly polarized light possesses tremendous application potential in information encryption, 3D displays and the related fields. Circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) materials have received significant interest owing to their unique inherent chiroptical properties, which prevent the energy loss generated by the circularly polarized filters. Among various CPL materials, organic pyrene derivatives have gained increasing attention owing to the high luminescence efficiency and tunable fluorescent behavior depending on their aggregation states. In this review, we review and summarize the recent research progress of CPL-active pyrene-derived fluorescent system, which is classified based on the interaction modes between pyrene group and chiral group, including covalently linking with central, axial, planar, topological or helical chiral group and non-covalently assembling with chiral inducer. We also discuss the latest applications of pyrene-based CPL materials to underscore their practical significance. We hope that the systematic research on pyrene-based CPL materials over the past decade will offer new insights and breakthroughs for the development of high-performance pyrene-based materials.