Dual-modal stimuli-responsive inherently chiral AIEgens: tunable circularly polarized luminescence and information encryption.

Pyridine-substituted chiral macrocyclic AIEgens with well-defined chirality were precisely synthesized, which displayed aggregation-induced emission and circularly polarized luminescence (CPL). Owing to coordination forces and protonation, these chiral AIEgens exhibited Ag+- and acid-responsive multi-color CPL signals, which were further leveraged to construct an information encryption system.