Solvent modulation of the morphology of homochiral gadolinium coordination polymers and its impact on circularly polarized luminescence

Studying the effect of morphology on the circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) of chiral molecular materials is important for the development of CPL-active materials for applications. Herein, we report that the morphology of Gd(NO 3 ) 3 / R -, S -AnempH 2 [AnempH 2 = (1-anthrylethylamino)methylphosphonic acid] assemblies can be controlled by solvent modulation to form spiral bundles Gd( R -, S -AnempH) 3 ·2H 2 O ( R -, S -1 ), crystals Gd( R -, S -AnempH) 3 ·2H 2 O ( R -, S -2 ) and spindle-shaped particles Gd( R -, S -AnempH) 3 ·3H 2 O·0.5DMF ( R -, S -3 ) with similar chain structures. Interestingly, R -, S -1 are CPL active and show the highest value of dissymmetric factor among the three pairs of enantiomers (| g lum | = 2.1 × 10 -3 ), which is 2.8 times larger than that of R -, S -2 , while R -, S -3 are CPL inactive with | g lum | 0. This work provides a new route to control the morphology of chiral coordination polymers and improve their CPL performance. The morphology of Gd(NO 3 ) 3 / R -, S -AnempH 2 assemblies is controlled by solvent. The spiral bundles ( R -, S -1 ) are CPL active with asymmetric factor 2.8 times larger than that of crystals ( R -, S -2 ), while spindle-shaped particles ( R -, S -3 ) are CPL inactive.