Mirror Symmetry Breaking by Chirality Synchronisation in Liquids and Liquid Crystals of Achiral Molecules

Spontaneous mirror symmetry breaking is an efficient way to obtain homogeneously chiral agents, pharmaceutical ingredients and materials. It is also in the focus of the discussion around the emergence of uniform chirality in biological systems. Tremendous progress has been made by symmetry breaking during crystallisation from supercooled melts or supersaturates solutions and by self‐assembly on solid surfaces and in other highly ordered structures. However, recent observations of spontaneous mirror symmetry breaking in liquids and liquid crystals indicate that it is not limited to the well‐ordered solid state. Herein, progress in the understanding of a new dynamic mode of symmetry breaking, based on chirality synchronisation of transiently chiral molecules in isotropic liquids and in bicontinuous cubic, columnar, smectic and nematic liquid crystalline phases is discussed. This process leads to spontaneous deracemisation in the liquid state under thermodynamic control, giving rise to long‐term stable symmetry‐broken fluids, even at high temperatures. These fluids form conglomerates that are capable of extraordinary strong chirality amplification, eventually leading to homochirality and providing a new view on the discussion of emergence of uniform chirality in prebiotic systems.     

Mirror Symmetry Breaking and Network Formation in Achiral Polycatenars with Thioether Tail

Mirror symmetry breaking in systems composed of achiral molecules is of importance for the design of functional materials for technological applications as well as for the understanding of the mechanisms of spontaneous emergence of chirality. Herein, we report the design and molecular self-assembly of two series of rod-like achiral polycatenar molecules derived from a π-conjugated 5,5’-diphenyl-2,2’-bithiophene core with a fork-like triple alkoxylated end and a variable single alkylthio chain at the other end. In both series of liquid crystalline materials, differing in the chain length at the trialkoxylated end, helical self-assembly of the π-conjugated rods in networks occurs, leading to wide temperature ranges (>200 K) of bicontinuous cubic network phases, in some cases being stable even around ambient temperatures. The achiral bicontinuous cubic Ia d phase (gyroid) is replaced upon alkylthio chain elongation by a spontaneous mirror symmetry broken bicontinuous cubic phase (I23) and a chiral isotropic liquid phase (Iso₁^[*^]). Further chain elongation results in removing the I23 phase and the re-appearance of the Ia d phase with different pitch lengths. In the second series an additional tetragonal phase separates the two cubic phase types.     

Controlling Mirror Symmetry Breaking and Network Formation in Liquid Crystalline Cubic,Isotropic Liquid and Crystalline Phases of Benzil-Based Polycatenars

Spontaneous development of chirality in systems composed of achiral molecules is important for new routes to asymmetric synthesis, chiral superstructures and materials, as well as for the understanding of the mechanisms of emergence of prebiotic chirality. Herein, it is shown that the 4,4′-diphenylbenzil unit is a universal transiently chiral bent building block for the design of multi-chained (polycatenar) rod-like molecules capable of forming a wide variety of helically twisted network structures in the liquid, the liquid crystalline (LC) and the crystalline state. Single polar substituents at the apex of tricatenar molecules support the formation of the achiral (racemic) cubic double network phase with Ia d symmetry and relatively small twist along the networks. The combination of an alkyl chain with fluorine substitution leads to the homogeneously chiral triple network phase with I23 space group, and in addition, provides a mirror symmetry broken liquid. Replacing F by Cl or Br further increases the twist, leading to a short pitch double gyroid Ia d phase, which is achiral again. The effects of the structural variations on the network structures, either leading to achiral phases or chiral conglomerates are analyzed.     

A Closer Look at Spontaneous Mirror Symmetry Breaking in Aldol Reactions

The aldol reaction between acetone and 4‐nitrobenzaldehyde run in the nominal absence of any enantioselective catalyst was monitored by chiral HPLC with the aid of an internal standard. The collected data show the presence of a detectable initial enantiomeric excess of the aldol product in the early stages of the reaction in about 50 % of the experiments. Only a small fraction of the reaction contained the non‐racemic aldol product after 24 h. This temporary emergence of natural optical activity could be the signature of a coupled reaction network that leads to a spontaneous mirror‐symmetry‐breaking process, which originates at very low conversions (i.e., strongly depends on events taking place at the very first stages of the process). The reaction is not autocatalytic in the aldol product, which rules out a simple Frank‐type reaction network as the source of the observed symmetry breaking. On the other hand, the isolation and characterisation of a double‐aldol adduct suggested a reaction network that involved both indirect autocatalysis and indirect mutual inhibition between the enantiomers of the reaction product.     

Development of Polar Order in the Liquid Crystal Phases of a 4‐Cyanoresorcinol‐Based Bent‐Core Mesogen with Fluorinated Azobenzene Wings

A bent‐core mesogen consisting of a 4‐cyanoresorcinol unit as the central core and laterally fluorinated azobenzene wings forms four different smectic LC phase structures in the sequence SmA–SmC_s–SmC_sP_AR–M, all involving polar SmC_sP_S domains with growing coherence length of tilt and polar order on decreasing temperature. The SmA phase is a cluster‐type de Vries phase with randomized tilt and polar direction; in the paraelectric SmC_s phase the tilt becomes uniform, although polar order is still short‐range. Increasing polar correlation leads to a new tilted and randomized polar smectic phase with antipolar correlation between the domains (SmC_sP_AR) which then transforms into a viscous polar mesophase M. As another interesting feature, spontaneous symmetry breaking by formation of a conglomerate of chiral domains is observed in the non‐polar paraelectric SmC_s phase.     

A Complex Reaction Network Model for Spontaneous Mirror Symmetry Breaking in Viedma Deracemizations

Attrition-enhanced chiral symmetry breaking in crystals, known as Viedma deracemization, is a promising method for converting racemic solid phases into enantiomerically pure ones under non-equilibrium conditions. However, many aspects of this process remain unclear. In this study, we present a new investigation into Viedma deracemization using a comprehensive kinetic rate equation continuous model based on classical primary nucleation theory, crystal growth, and Ostwald ripening. Our approach employs a fully microreversible kinetic scheme with a size-dependent solubility following the Gibbs–Thomson rule. To validate our model, we use data from a real NaClO₃ deracemization experiment. After parametrization, the model shows spontaneous mirror symmetry breaking (SMSB) under grinding. Additionally, we identify a bifurcation scenario with a lower and upper limit of the grinding intensity that leads to deracemization, including a minimum deracemization time within this window. Furthermore, this model uncovers that SMSB is caused by multiple instances of concealed high-order autocatalysis. Our findings provide new insights into attrition-enhanced deracemization and its potential applications in chiral molecule synthesis and understanding biological homochirality.     

Induction of the Columnar Phase of Unconventional Dendrimers by Breaking the C2 Symmetry of Molecules

Two triazine‐based unconventional dendrimers were prepared and characterized by ¹H and ¹³C NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, and elemental analysis. Differential scanning calorimetry, polarizing microscopy, and powder XRD studies showed that these dendrimers display columnar liquid‐crystalline phases during thermal treatment. This is ascribable to breaking of their C₂ symmetry. The molecular conformations of prepared dendrimers were obtained by computer simulation with the MM3 model of the CaChe program in the gas phase. The simulation showed that the conformations of the prepared dendrimers are rather flat and disfavor formation of the LC phase. However, due to C₂‐symmetry breaking, the prepared dendrimers have structural isomers in the solid state and thus show the desired columnar phases. This new strategy should be applicable to other types of unconventional dendrimers with rigid frameworks.     

Stereochemical Rules Govern the Soft Self-Assembly of Achiral Compounds: Understanding the Heliconical Liquid-Crystalline Phases of Bent-Core Mesogens

A series of bent-shaped 4-cyanoresorcinol bisterephthalates is reported. Some of these achiral compounds spontaneously form a short-pitch heliconical lamellar liquid-crystalline phase with incommensurate 3-layer pitch and the helix axis parallel to the layer normal. It is observed at the paraelectric-(anti)ferroelectric transition, if it coincides with the transition from random to uniform tilt and with the transition from anticlinic to synclinic tilt correlation of the molecules in the layers of the developing tilted smectic phase. For compounds with long chains the heliconical phase is only field-induced, but once formed it is stable in a distinct temperature range, even after switching off the field. The presence of the helix changes the phase properties and the switching mechanism from the naturally preferred rotation around the molecular long axis, which reverses the chirality, to a precession on a cone, which retains the chirality. These observations are explained by diastereomeric relations between two coexisting modes of superstructural chirality. One is the layer chirality, resulting from the combination of tilt and polar order, and the other one is the helical twist evolving between the layers. At lower temperature the helical structure is replaced by a non-tilted and ferreoelectric switching lamellar phase, providing an alternative non-chiral way for the transition from anticlinic to synclinic tilt.     

Chirality Induction through Nano‐Phase Separation: Alternating Network Gyroid Phase by Thermotropic Self‐Assembly of X‐Shaped Bolapolyphiles

The single gyroid phase as well as the alternating double network gyroid, composed of two alternating single gyroid networks, hold a significant place in ordered nanoscale morphologies for their potential applications as photonic crystals, metamaterials and templates for porous ceramics and metals. Here, we report the first alternating network cubic liquid crystals. They form through self‐assembly of X‐shaped polyphiles, where glycerol‐capped terphenyl rods lie on the gyroid surface while semiperfluorinated and aliphatic side‐chains fill their respective separate channel networks. This new self‐assembly mode can be considered as a two‐color symmetry‐broken double gyroid morphology, providing a tailored way to fabricate novel chiral structures with sub‐10 nm periodicities using achiral compounds.     

Molecular Chirality in Meteorites and Interstellar Ices,and the Chirality Experiment on Board the ESA Cometary Rosetta Mission

Life, as it is known to us, uses exclusively L ‐amino acid and D ‐sugar enantiomers for the molecular architecture of proteins and nucleic acids. This Minireview explores current models of the original symmetry‐breaking influence that led to the exogenic delivery to Earth of prebiotic molecules with a slight enantiomeric excess. We provide a short overview of enantiomeric enhancements detected in bodies of extraterrestrial origin, such as meteorites, and interstellar ices simulated in the laboratory. Data are interpreted from different points of view, namely, photochirogenesis, parity violation in the weak nuclear interaction, and enantioenrichment through phase transitions. Photochemically induced enantiomeric imbalances are discussed more specifically in the topical context of the “chirality module” on board the cometary Rosetta spacecraft of the ESA. This device will perform the first enantioselective in situ analyses of samples taken from a cometary nucleus.     

Switching Chirophilic Self-assembly: From meso-structures to Conglomerates in Liquid and Liquid Crystalline Network Phases of Achiral Polycatenar Compounds

Spontaneous generation of chirality from achiral molecules is a contemporary research topic with numerous implications for technological applications and for the understanding of the development of homogeneous chirality in biosystems. Herein, a series of azobenzene based rod-like molecules with an 3,4,5-trialkylated end and a single n-alkyl chain involving 5 to 20 aliphatic carbons at the opposite end is reported. Depending on the chain length and temperature these achiral molecules self-assemble into a series of liquid and liquid crystalline (LC) helical network phases. A chiral isotropic liquid (Iso₁^[*^]) and a cubic triple network phase with chiral I23 lattice were found for the short chain compounds, whereas non-cubic and achiral cubic phases dominate for the long chain compounds. Among them a mesoscale conglomerate with I23 lattice, a tetragonal phase (Tet_bi) containing one chirality synchronized and one non-synchronized achiral network, an achiral double network meso-structure with Ia d space group and an achiral percolated isotropic liquid mesophase (Iso₁) were found. This sequence is attributed to an increasing strength of chirality synchronization between the networks, combined with a change of the preferred mode of chirophilic self-assembly between the networks, switching from enantiophilic to enantiophobic with decreasing chain length and lowering temperature. These nanostructured and mirror symmetry broken LC phases exist over wide temperature ranges which is of interest for potential applications in chiral and photosensitive functional materials derived from achiral compounds.     

Polar Order and Symmetry Breaking at the Boundary between Bent‐Core and Rodlike Molecular Forms: When 4‐Cyanoresorcinol Meets the Carbosilane End Group

Two isomeric achiral bent‐core liquid crystals involving a 4‐cyanoresorcinol core and containing a carbosilane unit as nanosegregating segment were synthesized and were shown to form ferroelectric liquid‐crystalline phases. Inversion of the direction of one of the COO groups in these molecules leads to a distinct distribution of the electrostatic potential along the surface of the molecule and to a strong change of the molecular dipole moments. Thus, a distinct degree of segregation of the carbosilane units and consequent modification of the phase structure and coherence length of polar order result. For the compound with larger dipole moment ( CN1 ) segregation of the carbosilane units is suppressed, and this compound forms paraelectric SmA and SmC phases; polar order is only achieved after transition to a new LC phase, namely, the ferroelectric leaning phase (SmCL_sP_S) with the unique feature that tilt direction and polar direction coincide. The isomeric compound CN2 with a smaller dipole moment forms separate layers of the carbosilane groups and shows a randomized polar SmA phase (SmAP_AR) and ferroelectric polydomain SmC_sP_S phases with orthogonal combination of tilt and polar direction and much higher polarizations. Thus, surprisingly, the compound with the smaller molecular dipole moment shows increased polar order in the LC phases. Besides ferroelectricity, mirror‐symmetry breaking with formation of a conglomerate of macroscopic chiral domains was observed in one of the SmC phases of CN1 . These investigations contribute to the general understanding of the development of polar order and chirality in soft matter.     

Chiral Symmetry Breaking of Spiropyrans and Spirooxazines by Dynamic Enantioselective Crystallization

Dynamic enantioselective crystallization enabled the chiral symmetry breaking of two spiropyrans and one spirooxazine. The three spiro compounds afforded racemic conglomerate crystals, and easily racemized in alcoholic solution without irradiation. Optically pure enantiomorphic crystals were obtained by vapor-diffusion crystallization or attrition-enhanced deracemization (Viedma ripening). Their absolute configurations were determined by single-crystal X-ray analysis and each enantiomorphic crystal was correlated with its solid-state circular dichroism (CD) spectrum.     

基于非手性邻苯酚胺衍生物的半醌Fe(III)络合物的镜面对称性破缺及其绝对构型关联

以2- 苯胺基-4,6- 二叔丁基苯酚(H₂L)和FeCl₂·4H₂O为原料制备了一对手性半醌Fe(III) 络合物Λ-mer-[Fe(L^ISQ)₃]和Δ-mer-[Fe(L^ISQ)₃] (L^ISQ: 2-苯亚胺基-4, 6-二叔丁基苯酚, mer: 经式构型), 通过单晶X射线衍射分析结合单晶压制片膜的固体圆二色(CD)光谱确定了该络合物的绝对构型, 在此基础上建立了此类半醌络合物[M(L^ISQ)₃] (M=Cr, Fe, Co)的惟手性金属中心绝对构型与固体CD光谱之间的关联. 此外, 还对10份合成的[Fe(L^ISQ)₃]的大宗产物粉末与单晶的固体CD谱进行了比对分析, 以及对1 份合成产物进行10 次重结晶的固体CD 光谱表征. 研究表明该化合物在结晶过程中发生了镜面对称性破缺(MSB), 对映体过量(ee) 值在15%-100%之间.     

Change of Quadrupole Moment upon Excitation and Symmetry Breaking in Multibranched Donor-Acceptor Dyes

Upon photoexcitation, a majority of quadrupolar dyes, developed for large two-photon absorption, undergo excited-state symmetry breaking (ES-SB) and behave as dipolar molecules. We investigate how the change of quadrupole moment upon S₁←S₀ excitation, ΔQ, influences the propensity of a dye to undergo ES-SB using a series of molecules with a A -π- D -π- A motif where D is the exceptionally electron-rich pyrrolo[3,2-b]pyrrole and A are accepting groups. Tuning of ΔQ is achieved by appending a secondary acceptor group, A’ , on both sides of the D core and ES-SB is monitored using a combination of time-resolved IR and broadband fluorescence spectroscopy. The results reveal a clear correlation between ΔQ and the tendency to undergo ES-SB. When A is a stronger acceptor than A’ , ES-SB occurs already in non-dipolar but quadrupolar solvents. When A and A’ are identical, ES-SB is only partial even in highly dipolar solvents. When A is a weaker acceptor than A’ , the orientation of ΔQ changes, ES-SB is observed in dipolar solvents only and involves major redistribution of the excitation over the D -π- A and D-A’ branches of the dye.     

Spontaneous Mirror‐Symmetry Breaking in Isotropic Liquid Phases of Photoisomerizable Achiral Molecules

Spontaneous mirror‐symmetry breaking is of fundamental importance in science as it contributes to the development of chiral superstructures and new materials and has a major impact on the discussion around the emergence of uniform chirality in biological systems. Herein we report chirality synchronization, leading to spontaneous chiral conglomerate formation in isotropic liquids of achiral and photoisomerizable azobenzene‐based rod‐like molecules. The position of fluorine substituents at the aromatic core is found to have a significant effect on the stability and the temperature range of these chiral liquids. Moreover, these liquid conglomerates occur in a new phase sequence adjacent to a 3D tetragonal mesophase.