Chiral Mn–Zn Hybrid Halides Engineered toward Circularly Polarized Luminescence and X-ray Scintillation Imaging

Chiral Mn-based organic-inorganic hybrid metal halides (OIHMHs) are promising platforms for multifunctional photoelectric applications. However, achieving both strong circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) and high photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) in such materials remains challenging. Herein, a solid-solution strategy is developed in which Zn²⁺ are partially substituted into zero-dimensional Mn-based OIHMHs to obtain chiral (<i>R</i>,<i>R</i>/<i>S</i>,<i>S</i>-DCDA)Mn_1-<i>x</i>Zn_<i>x</i>Cl₄ (<i>R</i>/<i>S</i>-DMZC). Structural and spectroscopic analyses demonstrate that Zn²⁺ incorporation expands Mn-Mn distances, effectively suppresses concentration quenching, and significantly enhances the emission efficiency of the Mn²⁺ centers. The resulting <i>R</i>/<i>S</i>-DMZC exhibit green CPL with luminescence dissymmetry factors (<i>g</i>_lum) of ±8 × 10^-3 and 78.2% PLQY. Furthermore, under X-ray excitation, these materials produce intense radioluminescence, with <i>R</i>-DMZC achieving a detection limit of 54.1 nGy s^-1 and <i>S</i>-DMZC reaching 40.3 nGy s^-1. We fabricated a flexible scintillator screen for efficient X-ray imaging, demonstrating that the tuning of local coordination environments yields high-performance CPL-active and scintillation materials.