Chirality-sensing supramolecular systems

Ambidextrous circular dichroism and circularly polarised luminescence from poly(9,9-di-n-decylfluorene) by terpene chirality transfer

Solvent chirality transfer using enantiomeric pairs of limonene and α-pinene allowed for the successful production of ambidextrous CD-/CPL-active polyfluorene aggregates from achiral polyfluorenes at 25 °C in a few minutes.

Hydrodynamic effects on chiral induction

There are few unambiguous reports describing the transfer of chirality from stirring vortices down to the level of electronic transitions. In this tutorial review the methods reported are discussed as well as the structural trends that seem to be necessary conditions in order to detect this phenomenon.

Acidification and assembly of porphyrin at an interface: counterion matching, selectivity, and supramolecular chirality

The interfacial diprotonation and assemblies of a free-base achiral porphyrin, 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(3,5-dimethoxyphenyl)-21H,23H-porphine, on various acidic subphases were investigated. It has been shown that the compound could be diprotonated in situ on an acidic subphase and can form assemblies. The interfacially organized supramolecular assemblies were transferred onto a solid substrate, and the assemblies showed supramolecular chirality. Interestingly, the supramolecular chirality of the assemblies of the diprotonated species showed a counterion-dependent behavior. For the assemblies fabricated from the aqueous HCl subphases, a strong Cotton effect (CE) could be observed, although the porphyrin itself is achiral. When an aqueous HBr solution was used as the subphase, the assemblies showed a weak CE, whereas no CE could be detected for the assemblies formulated from the HNO3 or HI subphase. Interestingly, when a mixture of HBr and NaCl, or HNO3 and NaCl, was employed as the subphase, the formed assemblies displayed chiral features similar to those fabricated on the HCl subphase, suggesting that the Cl(-) could be preferentially visualized in terms of supramolecular chirality, although the system itself is composed of achiral species. On the basis of the experimental facts and a theoretical calculation, an explanation with regard to the different sizes of the counterions and the distinct binding affinities of the counteranions to the diprotonated porphyrin species has been proposed. Our findings provide new insights into the assembly of the diprotonated porphyrins as well as the interfacially occurring symmetry breaking.

Dendritic molecular switch: chiral folding and helicity inversion

Appropriately designed chemical architectures can fold to adopt well-defined secondary structures without the need for structural motifs of biological origin. We have designed tris(N-salicylideneaniline)-based hyperbranched molecules that spontaneously collapse to compact three-blade propeller geometry of either (P)- or (M)-handedness. For a homologous series of compounds, a direct correlation was established between the absolute screw sense, either (P)- or (M)-, of this helical folding and the absolute configuration, either (R)- or (S)-, of the chiral alcohol groups introducing local asymmetric bias to the conformationally restricted molecular backbone. 1H NMR and CD spectroscopic studies provided significant insights into structural folding and unfolding of these chiral molecules in solution, which proceed via reversible assembly and disassembly of the C3-symmetric hydrogen-bonding network. Notably, solvents profoundly influenced this dynamic process. A strong correlation between the solvent donor number (DN) or solvent basicity (SB) parameters and the change in the Cotton effects pointed toward specific O-H...solvent interactions that drive structural unfolding and eventual refolding to apparently opposite helicity. This unusual chirality inversion process could also be induced by installation of chemical protecting groups that simulate specific solvent-solute interactions. Removal of this covalent mimic of the solvent shell restored the original screw sense of the parent molecule, thus establishing the feasibility of covalently triggered helicity inversion as a new mode of operation for chiroptical molecular switches.

Amplification of local chirality within a folded dendrimer. An intramolecular ‘sergeants and soldiers’ experiment

A series of pyridine-2,6-dicarboxamide dendrons having varying proportions of chiral and achiral termini have been prepared. Circular dichroism and X-ray crystallographic studies indicate that these folded dendrons propagate terminal chirality via a ‘sergeants and soldiers’ process. The extent of chiral amplification shows a dependence on dendron generation, but also is affected by the relative positioning of the chiral termini at the periphery of the dendron. Analysis of the crystal structures of the G1 dendrons, 4a – 6a , reveals chain–chain and chain–dendron conformational communication, which is likely to be responsible for the chiral amplification observed in solution.

Chiral differentiation of some cyclopentane and cyclohexane beta-amino acid enantiomers through ion/molecule reactions

Chiral differentiation of four enantiomeric pairs of beta-amino acids, cis-(1R,2S)-, cis-(1S,2R)-, trans-(1R,2R)-, and trans-(1S,2S)-2-aminocyclopentanecarboxylic acids (cyclopentane beta-amino acids), and cis-(1R,2S)-, cis-(1S,2R)-, trans-(1R,2R)-, and trans-(1S,2S)-2-aminocyclohexanecarboxylic acids (cyclohexane beta-amino acids) was performed successfully by using host-guest complexes and ion/molecule reactions. The experiments were conducted by using electrospray ionization Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry. The effect of a chiral host molecule was tested by using three different host compounds; (+)-(18-Crown-6)-2,3,11,12-tetracarboxylic acid, (-)-(18-Crown-6)-2,3,11,12-tetracarboxylic acid, and beta-cyclodextrin. This is the first time that small enantiomeric pairs with two chiral centers have been differentiated using ion/molecule reactions and host-guest complexes.

Radical pairs with rotational fluidity in the photochemical reaction of acetophenone and cyclohexane in the zeolite NAY: a (13)C CPMAS NMR and product analysis study

The photochemical reaction of acetophenone and cyclohexane in the zeolite NaY occurs by combination of the geminate radical pairs to give products that reveal a significant amount of rotational fluidity, which was also documented by intermolecular nuclear dipolar interaction measurements using cross polarization (13)C NMR (CPMAS) experiments.

The Studies of Conditions for Inducing Chirality to Cu(II) Complexes by Chiral Zn(II) and Ni(II) Complexes with Schiff Base

Recently, we have discovered that some chiral Schiff-base nickel(II) complexes induced d-d bands of CD spectra of some achiral copper(II) complexes. However, the novel phenomenon could be observed only a few systems of hybrid materials or limited conditions so far. In order to test conditions about copper(II) ions, we investigated model systems (1) metal-dendrimer (Cu-PAMAM; G4-NH2terminal) containing relatively small amount of copper(II) ions (4.5 equivalent to PAMAM) for modeling separated systems of achiral copper(II) complex from chiral Schiff-base nickel(II) or zinc(II) complexes, Bis(N-R-1-naphtylethyl-3,5-dichlorosalicydenaminato)nickel(II) or zinc(II) by polymer matrix. (2) equilibrium of copper(II)N-ethylethylenediamine complexes to measure absorption spectra of d-d band, pH, and electron conductivity during titration of copper(II) ions. The results showed that (1) 4.5Cu-PAMAM could not be induced their d-d bands by the chiral nickel(II) or zinc(II) complexes, which suggested that separation by polymers prevented from inducing CD peaks. (2) Although 36Cu-PAMAM was known, uncoordinated copper(II) ions excess to ligands mainly attributed to increase electron conductivity by remained ions in methanol solutions, which was not associated with intermolecular interaction or dipole moments being effective for the induced CD mechanism by using molecular recognition between neutral molecules of metal complexes.