Abstract
Printing materials with circularly polarized light (CPL) emission holds promise for flexible stereoscopic displays and multilevel anticounterfeiting solutions. However, a key challenge lies in developing printable CPL materials that exhibit both high photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) and luminescence dissymmetry factor (
g
lum
) values. In this study, we present the macroscopic and controllable production of efficient full-color CPL carbon dot (CDs) photonic paint materials. These printable CPL materials, consisting of heavy metal-free CDs as emitters, and liquid crystals as host matrices, are produced using a helical coassembly strategy. Our CPL systems based on CDs achieve high PLQY (more than 80%) and
g
lum
values (more than 1.4), with a figure of merit (a key performance indicator for CPL properties calculated by multiplying PLQY and glum) of 1.12, outperforming other CPL material systems. Furthermore, the full-color CDs-CPL is successfully used for printing flexible circularly polarized luminous patterns and multilevel anticounterfeiting features. This research provides insights into advanced CPL materials, highlighting their broad potential applications.