Circularly Polarized Luminescence from Simple Organic Molecules

This article aims to show the identity of “circularly polarized luminescent active simple organic molecules” as a new concept in organic chemistry due to the potential interest of these molecules, as availed by the exponentially growing number of research articles related to them. In particular, it describes and highlights the interest and difficulty in developing chiral simple (small and non‐aggregated) organic molecules able to emit left‐ or right‐circularly polarized light efficiently, the efforts realized up to now to reach this challenging objective, and the most significant milestones achieved to date. General guidelines for the preparation of these interesting molecules are also presented. Will it be possible to generate circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) efficiently from simple organic molecules (SOM) in solution? This Concept article highlights the interest of this difficult question, the efforts realized up to now to solve it, and the most significant milestones achieved to date. The article postulates the important role that molecular designs based on helical structures could play in overcoming limiting factors.