Stapled helical o-OPE foldamers as new circularly polarized luminescence emitters based on carbophilic interactions with Ag(i)-sensitivity† †We dedicate this work to Ettore Castiglioni who, with his high experience in the field of chiroptical spectroscopies, gave important contributions also to the development of CPL instrumentation. ‡ ‡Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: general experimental details, synthesis of all new substrates and complexes, 1H and 13C NMR spectra of the new compounds and the corresponding NMR titrations, photophysical and theoretical data. CCDC 1443131. For ESI and crystallographic data in CIF or other electronic format see DOI: 10.1039/c6sc01808d

Chiral stapled o-OPEs show excellent circular polarized luminescence responses (glum of 1.1 × 10–2) which can be modulated by carbophilic interactions.
ortho-Oligo(phenylene)ethynylenes (o-OPEs) stapled with enantiopure 2,3-dihydroxybutane diethers have highly intense circular dichroism (CD) spectra and excellent circular polarized luminescence (CPL) responses (glum values up to 1.1 × 10–2), which are consistent with homochiral helically folded structures. In the presence of Ag(i), a change in the CPL emission is observed, representing the first example of CPL active small organic molecular emitters, which can be modulated by carbophilic interactions in a reversible manner.