Chirality, the property of asymmetry that plays a crucial role in nature, has become a cornerstone of advanced material design. Chiral materials enable unique functionalities such as circularly polarized light (CPL) emission, spin-selective charge transport, and enantioselective catalysis, offering transformative opportunities in spintronics, photonics, and sensing.

Perovskite nanocrystals (PNCs) have emerged as a focal point of research due to their exceptional optoelectronic properties, including high photoluminescence quantum yields, tunable bandgaps, and superior charge-carrier mobility. These features make PNCs highly desirable for applications such as solar cells, LEDs, lasers, and photodetectors. However, their practical implementation is constrained by critical challenges, including instability under environmental conditions, lead toxicity, and difficulties in large-scale production.

Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs), a class of highly porous materials with modular and tunable structures, provide an exciting platform to address these challenges. MOFs are renowned for their high surface area, tunable porosity, and structural flexibility, enabling applications in gas storage, catalysis, and optoelectronics. By incorporating perovskite nanocrystals within their frameworks, MOFs can act as scaffolds that stabilize the PNCs while imparting chirality, facilitating the exploration of chirality-induced optoelectronic properties.

In this study, we report the synthesis of a chiral MOF, ZIF-8, modified with histidine to achieve chirality transfer to CsPbBr₃ perovskite nanocrystals. Both L- and D-enantiomers of histidine were utilized to tune the chiral environment of the MOF. Additional ZIF systems, with varying molar ratios of histidine, were also synthesized to investigate the degree of chirality transfer. This integration enables the MOF scaffold to not only stabilize the CsPbBr₃ NCs but also induce chirality in their optical and electronic properties, resulting in enhanced circularly polarized light emission (CPL) and photoluminescence (PL). XRD spectra and SEM-EDX analysis confirmed the incorporation of CsPbBr₃ NCs. FT-IR spectra confirmed the presence of histidine inside the ZIF-8 cage. PL spectra and CPL measurement demonstrated the chirality transfer between the chiral MOF and CsPbBr₃ NCs.

The concept of chirality transfer between the MOF and perovskite nanocrystals marks a significant advancement, as it leverages the MOF’s ability to host nanoparticles and its modular chiral environment. This synergistic approach addresses the instability of PNCs while unlocking novel optoelectronic functionalities driven by chirality. The combination of chiral MOFs and perovskite nanocrystals provides a versatile foundation for the development of next-generation technologies in optoelectronics, spintronics, and sensing, pushing the boundaries of material innovation.