Circularly polarized luminescence of syndiotactic polystyrene

Syndiotactic polystyrene (s-PS) films, when crystallized from the amorphous state by temporary sorption of non-racemic guest molecules (like carvone) not only exhibit unusually high optical activity, both in the UV-Visible and Infrared ranges, but also present circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) with high dissymmetry ratios (g = ΔI/I values in the range 0.02-0.03). Experimental evidences provide support, rather than to the usual molecular circular dichroism, to a supramolecular chiral optical response being extrinsic to the site of photon absorption and emission, possibly associated with a helical morphology of s-PS crystallites.