Multifunctional Helicene-Based Ytterbium(III) Coordination Polymer Displaying Circularly Polarized Luminescence, Slow Magnetic Relaxation and Room Temperature Magneto-Chiral Dichroism

The combination of physical properties sensitive to molecular chirality in a single system allows the observation of fascinating phenomena such as Magneto-Chiral Dichroism (MChD) and Circularly Polarized Luminescence (CPL) having potential applications for optical data readout and display technology. Homochiral monodimensional coordination polymers of YbIII were designed from a 2,15-bis-ethynyl-hexahelicenic scaffold decorated with two terminal 4-pyridyl units. Thanks to the coordination of the chiral organic chromophore to Yb(hfac)3 units, efficient NIR-CPL activity is observed. Moreover, the specific crystal field around the YbIII induces a strong magnetic anisotropy which leads to a slow magnetic relaxation (SMM) and a remarkable room temperature MChD. The MChD-structural correlation is supported by computational investigations.