Chiral Covalent Organic Frameworks for Circularly Polarized Luminescence and Light Detection Applications

Chiral covalent organic frameworks (CCOFs) integrate high crystallinity, permanent porosity, and programmable chiral microenvironments, making them attractive platforms for chiroptical materials and circularly polarized light-responsive devices. This review summarizes recent progress in CCOFs, covering the introduction of chirality through post-synthetic modification, de novo synthesis, chiral induction, and catalytic asymmetric synthesis, as well as the amplification of chirality from molecular units to pore architectures, helical morphologies, thin films, and devices. We further discuss representative CCOF systems for circularly polarized luminescence and circularly polarized light detection, focusing on the relationships among framework structure, host-guest confinement, chirality-induced spin selectivity-mediated transport, and dissymmetry factors. Helical morphology amplifies chirality across scales through ordered chromophore organization and anisotropic charge and spin transport. Together, these advances establish a multiscale design framework for translating molecular chirality into measurable optical and device responses. Finally, we identify key challenges in balancing luminescence efficiency with chiroptical asymmetry, stabilizing helical architectures, fabricating oriented films, and establishing quantitative structure-property relationships.