Authenticating products and documents with security inks is vital to global commerce, security and health. Lanthanide complexes are widely used in luminescent security inks owing to their unique and robust photophysical properties. Lanthanide complexes can also be engineered to undergo circularly polarized luminescence (CPL), which encodes chiral molecular fingerprints in luminescence spectra that cannot be decoded by conventional optical measurements. However, chiral CPL signals have not yet been exploited as an extra security layer in advanced security inks. This Review introduces CPL and related concepts that are necessary to appreciate the challenges and potential of lanthanide-based, CPL-active security inks. We describe recent advances in CPL analysis and read-out technologies that have expedited CPL-active security ink applications. Further, we provide a systematic meta-analysis of strongly CPL-active Euⁱⁱⁱ, Tbⁱⁱⁱ, Smⁱⁱⁱ, Ybⁱⁱⁱ, Cmⁱⁱⁱ, Dyⁱⁱⁱ and Crⁱⁱⁱ complexes, discussing the suitability of their photophysical properties and highlighting promising candidates. We conclude by providing key recommendations for the development and advancement of the field.

使用防伪油墨验证产品和文件对全球商业、安全和健康至关重要。镧系元素络合物由于其独特而强大的光物理特性而广泛用于发光防伪油墨。镧系元素配合物也可以被设计成进行圆偏振发光 (CPL)，它在发光光谱中编码手性分子指纹，这是传统光学测量无法解码的。然而，手性 CPL 信号尚未被用作高级安全油墨中的额外安全层。本综述介绍了 CPL 和相关概念，这些概念对于理解基于镧系元素的 CPL 活性安全油墨的挑战和潜力是必要的。我们描述了 CPL 分析和读出技术的最新进展，这些技术加快了 CPL 活性安全油墨的应用。更远，ⁱⁱⁱ、Tb ⁱⁱⁱ、Sm ⁱⁱⁱ、Yb ⁱⁱⁱ、Cm ⁱⁱⁱ、Dy ⁱⁱⁱ和 Cr ⁱⁱⁱ配合物，讨论了它们的光物理特性的适用性并突出了有前途的候选者。最后，我们为该领域的发展和进步提供了重要建议。