Chiral pillar[n]arenes: Conformation inversion,material preparation and applications

Chiral pillar[n]arenes have shown great research value and application prospect in construction of chiral materials and chiral applications, due to their inherent planar chiral configurations, chiral recognition ability, easy modification and highly symmetric hydrophobic cavity. This review systematically summarized the conformation inversion factors of planar chiral pillar[5]arenes (pR/pS), such as solvents, temperature, substituent size, alkyl chains, chiral and achiral guest molecules. We firstly introduced the applications of chiral pillar[n]arenes for constructing chiral materials and pointed out that planar conformation inversion showed a great potential role in constructing chiral materials. Then, we mainly concluded the chiral applications of chiral and planar chiral pillar[n]arenes like chiral enantiomer analysis by circular dichroism, electrochemistry or chiral fluorescence sensing. From this review, we found that the inherent planar chiral conformation of chiral pillar[n]arenes have played a very important role in chiral field in the future.     

Sequential Chiral Induction and Regulator-Assisted Chiral Memory of Pillar[5]arenes

Chirality transfer is widely observed in life processes, and many artificial chiral transfer systems have been developed. In these systems, chiral information is transferred from chiral inducers to chiral acceptors by a direct chiral induction process and a direct chiral memorization process. We have developed ternary nondirect chiral transfer systems based on pillar[5]arenes, in which a third factor was introduced as a regulator. The planar chirality of an acceptor was induced and memorized by a chiral inducer with precise control by a regulator. In the chiral induction period, the feed sequence of the chiral inducer and regulator affected the chiral induction behavior of the chiral acceptor. The chiral memory ability of the acceptor was substantially improved by the combined action of the chiral inducer and regulator.     

Chiral ionic liquids: synthesis, properties, and enantiomeric recognition

We have synthesized a series of structurally novel chiral ionic liquids which have a either chiral cation, chiral anion, or both. Cations are an imidazolium group, while anions are based on a borate ion with spiral structure and chiral substituents. Both (or all) stereoisomeric forms of each compound in the series can be readily synthesized in optically pure form by a simple one-step process from commercially available reagents. In addition to the ease of preparation, most of the chiral ILs in this series are liquid at room temperature with a solid to liquid transformation temperature as low as -70 degrees C and have relatively high thermal stability (up to at least 300 degrees C). Circular dichroism and X-ray crystallographic results confirm that the reaction to form the chiral spiral borate anion is stereospecific, namely, only one of two possible spiral stereoisomers was formed. Results of NMR studies including 1H{15N} heteronuclear single quantum coherence (HSQC) show that these chiral ILs exhibit intramolecular as well as intermolecular enantiomeric recognition. Intramolecularly, the chiral anion of an IL was found to exhibit chiral recognition toward the cation. Specifically, for a chiral IL composing with a chiral anion and a racemic cation, enantiomeric recognition of the chiral anion toward both enantiomers of the cation lead to pronounced differences in the NMR bands of the cation enantiomers. The chiral recognition was found to be dependent on solvent dielectric constant, concentration, and structure of the ILs. Stronger enantiomeric recognition was found in solvent with relatively lower dielectric constants (CDCl3 compared to CD3CN) and at higher concentration of ILs. Also, stronger chiral recognition was found for anions with a relatively larger substituent group (e.g., chiral anion with a phenylmethyl group exhibits stronger chiral recognition compared to that with a phenyl group, and an anion with an isobutyl group has the weakest chiral recognition). Chiral anions were also found to exhibit intermolecular chiral recognition. Enantiomeric discrimination was found for a chiral IL composed of a chiral anion and achiral cation toward another chiral molecule such as a quinine derivative.     

New insights in the search for chiral Brønsted bases

The concept of using chiral bases in asymmetric synthesis appeared with the emergence of the chemistry of chiral lithium amides. In recent years, new classes of chiral bases, such as chiral magnesium bisamides and chiral alkali alkoxides have proven to be highly efficient and easy to handle. This paper highlights recent advances and new concepts in the chemistry of this second generation of chiral bases.     

Enantioselective crystallization of histidine on chiral self-assembled films of cysteine

In this paper, the preparation and use of chiral surfaces derived from enantiomerically pure crystals of amino acids are described. For this purpose, a self-assembly process to grow thin chiral films of (+)-L- or (-)-D-cysteine on gold surfaces was chosen. These chiral films were utilized as crystallization catalysts in the crystallization of enantiomers from solutions. To demonstrate the chiral discrimination power of the chiral surfaces in crystallization processes, the crystallization of racemic histidine onto the chiral films was investigated. Our study demonstrates the potential application of chiral films to control chirality throughout crystallization, where one enantiomer crystallizes onto the chiral surfaces with relative high enantiomeric excess. In addition, crystallization of pure histidine enantiomers onto chiral films results in strong crystal morphology modification with preferred orientation.     

手性配位聚合物的构筑及其应用

手性配位聚合物因其结构多样性、可调控性以及潜在的多功能性,已经成为当前化学和材料学的研究热点。在合成中,可以通过选择特定的非手性配体、手性配体、手性溶剂或手性模板剂等来构筑手性配位聚合物。此外,还可以选择特定的金属离子赋予目标手性配位聚合物光、电、磁、催化和非线性光学等性能。本文详细综述了近年来纯手性配位聚合物的合成方法,以及在手性分离、手性催化、非线性光学、铁电和多铁等领域的应用研究进展。最后,对手性配位聚合物的合成方法及应用前景进行了展望。     

Asymmetric Electrochemical Catalysis

Asymmetric electrochemical catalysis, an emerging frontline in asymmetric catalysis and electro-organic synthesis, is summarized. Representative works are classified, with respect to the external chiral resources, including chiral media, chiral mediator, chiral catalyst, and chiral electrode. This concept article is expected to provide readers with the general concepts and perspectives of each chiral electrochemical catalysis mode, and to indicate the potential and future development of asymmetric electrochemical catalysis.     

Extension of chromatographically derived chiral recognition systems to chiral recognition and enantiomer analysis by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

Chiral recognition by positive ion electrospray ionization (ESI) mass spectrometry is demonstrated through the adaptation of chromatographically derived chiral recognition systems. Solutions of soluble analogues of chiral selectors used in Pirkle-type chiral stationary phases, when mixed with a chiral analyte, whose enantiomers are known to be resolved on the analogous chiral stationary phase, are shown to afford selector–analyte complexes in the mass spectrum. Pseudo-enantiomeric chiral selectors, where each pseudo-enantiomer has a different mass and a higher affinity for the opposite analyte enantiomer of its pseudo-antipode, were prepared. When mixed with a chiral analyte, solutions of these pseudo-enantiomeric selectors afford selector–analyte complexes in the ESI-mass spectrum where the relative intensities of the selector–analyte complexes are dependent on the enantiomeric composition of the analyte. Additionally, the sense of the observed chiral recognition is in agreement with the sense of chiral recognition observed chromatographically.     

Recent developments on chiral ionic liquids: design, synthesis, and applications

The recent progress in chiral ionic liquids with respect to their syntheses and applications in enantioselective reactions and chiral recognition is described. In addition to the conventional chiral ionic liquids derived from chiral natural products, a library of novel chiral spiro compounds, including spiro bis(pyridinium) and spiro bis(imidazolium) salt, is also described.     

Turning on Asymmetric Catalysis of Achiral Metal-Organic Frameworks by Imparting Chiral Microenvironment

The development of heterogeneous asymmetric catalysts has attracted increasing interest in synthetic chemistry but mostly relies on the immobilization of homogeneous chiral catalysts. Herein, a series of chiral metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have been fabricated by anchoring similar chiral hydroxylated molecules (catalytically inactive) with different lengths onto Zr-oxo clusters in achiral PCN-222(Cu). The resulting chiral MOFs exhibit regulated enantioselectivity up to 83 % ee in the asymmetric ring-opening of cyclohexene oxide. The chiral molecules furnished onto the catalytic Lewis sites in the MOF create multilevel microenvironment, including the hydrogen interaction between the substrate and the chiral −OH group, the steric hindrance endowed by the benzene ring on the chiral molecules, and the proximity between the catalytic sites and chiral molecules confined in the MOF pores, which play crucial roles and synergistically promote chiral catalysis. This work nicely achieves heterogeneous enantioselective catalysis by chiral microenvironment modulation around Lewis acid sites.     

Self-assembly Mechanism and Chiral Transfer in CuO Superstructures

Chiral inorganic superstructures have received considerable interest due to the chiral communication between inorganic compounds and chiral organic additives. However, the demanding fabrication and complex multilevel structure seriously hinder the understanding of chiral transfer and self-assembly mechanisms. Herein, we use chiral CuO superstructures as a model system to study the formation process of hierarchical chiral structures. Based on a simple and mild synthesis route, the time-resolved morphology and the in situ chirality evolution could be easily followed. The morphology evolution of the chiral superstructure involves hierarchical assembly, including primary nanoparticles, intermediate bundles, and superstructure at different growth stages. Successive redshifts and enhancements of the CD signal support chiral transfer from the surface penicillamine to the inorganic superstructure. Full-field electro-dynamical simulations reproduced the structural chirality and allowed us to predict its modulation. This work opens the door to a large family of chiral inorganic materials where chiral molecule-guided self-assembly can be specifically designed to follow a bottom-up chiral transfer pathway.     

Improvement of chiral stationary phases based on cinchona alkaloids bonded to crown ethers by chiral modification

To improve the chiral recognition capability of a cinchona alkaloid crown ether chiral stationary phase, the crown ether moiety was modified by the chiral group of (1S, 2S)‐2‐aminocyclohexyl phenylcarbamate. Both quinine and quinidine‐based stationary phases were evaluated by chiral acids, chiral primary amines and amino acids. The quinine/quinidine and crown ether provided ion‐exchange sites and complex interaction site for carboxyl group and primary amine group in amino acids, respectively, which were necessary for the chiral discrimination of amino acid enantiomers. The introduction of the chiral group greatly improved the chiral recognition for chiral primary amines. The structure of crown ether moiety was proved to play a dominant role in the chiral recognitions for chiral primary amines and amino acids.     

Lattice structure in liquid-crystal blue phase with various chiral concentrations

Lattice structures, including reflection lattice planes and lattice constant, of liquid-crystal blue phase I (BPI) are studied via the measurements on reflection spectrum and Kossel diagram as concentration of a chiral dopant is changed. Peaks of the reflection wavelength in BPI are mainly dominated by the lattice plane and the lattice constant, which are affected by the chiral concentration. In the chiral nematic state, as decreasing the chiral concentration the reflection peak will shift to a longer wavelength because the helical pitch linearly depends on the chiral concentration and becomes longer. However, this dependence of the chiral concentration and reflection wavelength is broken in the BPI. The reflection peak of BPI moves to a short wavelength when the chiral concentration is less due to the contraction of the lattice constant as well as helical pitch. Moreover, when the concentration of the chiral dopant increases over a certain value, a discontinuous shift in reflection peak occurs due to the production of the different lattice planes. It means that the relationship between the chiral concentration and the helical pitch in BPI is not the same as it in the chiral nematic phase and should be reconsidered.     

Synthesis of new chiral fluorescent sensors and their applications in enantioselective discrimination

New chiral fluorescent sensors derived from tetraphenylethylene and proline hydrazide were synthesized and applied in the chiral recognition of various chiral compounds, including unprotected amino acids, acidic compounds, chiral amines and even neutral alcohols. These results demonstrated that the excellent enantioselective response ability to various chiral substrates could be attributed to the –NH moieties of pyrrolidine ring and thiourea unit which acted as hydrogen-bonding donors. This result is of potential significance in enantiomeric discrimination and high-throughput analysis of the enantiomeric purity of chiral guests.     

Optical manipulation with nanoscale chiral fields and related photochemical phenomena

Chiral light-matter interaction occurs when the system consists of the matter and the light has a chiral structure, which is generically called the chiro-optical effect. Circular dichroism and optical rotation are representative spectroscopic methods based on chiro-optical effects. Chiro-optical effects have been widely utilized to detect chiral materials in the system. The chiro-optical effect also has the potential to create chiral materials from achiral materials and chiral optical fields, and to generate chiral optical fields from chiral matter systems. To achieve that, the design and observation of chiral optical field structures are essential. In this article, we describe local chiral optical fields generated in the peripheries of nanomaterials (typically metal nanostructures) irradiated with light. We summarize basic characteristics of nanoscale local chiral optical fields, methods to observe/control the chiral optical field structures at nanomaterials. Then some chemical, optical, and mechanical effects of designed chiral optical fields are described. Chiral nanostructures were created from achiral nanomaterials combined with circularly polarized light. Nucleation of chiral crystals of achiral molecules was achieved by circularly polarized light with the aid of plasmonic materials. Circularly polarized luminescence was observed from achiral fluorescent molecules conjugated with chiral plasmonic nanostructures. On mechanical characteristics, optical forces exerted on chiral materials were found to be dependent on the handedness of incident circularly polarized light, which can be utilized to discriminate the chirality of the material. The concept can be further generalized to the spin-dependent asymmetric light-matter interactions, which will create not only the molecular- and nano-scale chiral structures but also various novel functions of materials that are correlated with the handedness degree of freedom.     

双手性选择单元手性固定相的研究进展

手性固定相（chiral stationary phase,CSP）作为手性色谱分离的核心技术,在手性化合物的识别和分离中得到广泛应用。以双手性选择单元结合作为CSP是近些年的研究热点,研究表明,两种手性选择单元相结合的CSP可增加手性识别位点,显著提高分离效果。本文介绍了近几年双手性选择单元手性固定相在手性分离中的研究进展,并对其发展前景进行了展望。     

Use of chiral ionic liquids as solvents for the enantioselective photoisomerization of dibenzobicyclo[2.2.2]octatrienes

[Reaction: see text] Six chiral ionic liquids were prepared and evaluated as "chiral induction solvents" in which two different dibenzobicyclo[2.2.2]octatrienes were photoisomerized to chiral products. Enantiomeric excesses from 3 to 12% were obtained from the photochemical di-pi-methane rearrangement. Results indicate that the chiral induction derives from an ion pairing interaction of the deprotonated diacids with the ionic liquid cation. This is the first report on chiral induction via a chiral IL for an irreversible, unimolecular photochemical isomerization.     

一种新型的含联二萘结构的手性聚芳醚酮的合成及表征

目前,对于外消旋体的拆分已经越来越引起人们的关注,在药物化学领域中尤为突出,原因是手性药物的两个对映体虽然在物理和化学性质上大多相同,但其在药效及药物动力学方面却表现出很大的差别,目前尚没有通用的手性固定相用于外消旋体的拆分,为了解决这一问题,以淀粉、纤维素以及其衍生物制备的手性固定相已被人们广泛使用。     

Preparation and chiral resolution properties of bridged bis(cyclodextrin)s hybrid spheres for high performance liquid chromatography

Selenium-bridged bis(β-cyclodextrin)s organic–inorganic hybrid silica material with regular spherical shape as new type of chiral stationary phase was directly synthesized under the one-pot hydrothermal synthesis method, and the chiral stationary phase was further characterized by infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, thermogravimetry, and elemental analysis. The results of chiral separation showed that eight chiral compounds including various types of chiral alcohols and flavanone were successfully separated in the reversed-phase separation mode by high performance liquid chromatography, which showed the better chiral resolution effect than that on the C2 position of single β-cyclodextrin. The mechanism of chiral separation was likely due to multiple interactions such as inclusion, hydrogen bonding, electrostatic interaction, dipole–dipole interaction, and the synergistic effect of two cyclodextrins during the chiral resolution process. The synergy of the two cyclodextrins has great potential for development in chiral resolution.     

Chiral structures of 6,12-dibromochrysene on Au(111) and Cu(111) surfaces

Nanoscale low-dimensional chiral architectures are increasingly receiving scientific interest, because of their potential applications in many fields such as chiral recognition, separation and transformation. Using 6,12-dibromochrysene (DBCh), we successfully constructed and characterized the large-area two-dimensional chiral networks on Au(111) and one-dimensional metal-liganded chiral chains on Cu(111) respectively. The reasons and processes of chiral transformation of chiral networks on Au(111) were analyzed. We used scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) to analyze the electronic state information of this chiral structure. This work combines scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) with non-contact atomic force microscopy (nc-AFM) techniques to achieve ultra-high-resolution characterization of chiral structures on low-dimensional surfaces, which may be applied to the bond analysis of functional nanofilms. Density functional theory (DFT) was used to simulate the adsorption behavior of the molecular and energy analysis in order to verify the experimental results.