Vibrational Circular Dichroism Spectroscopy of Chiral Molecular Crystals: Insights from Theory

Chirality is a curious phenomenon that appears in various forms. While the concept of molecular (RS-)chirality is ubiquitous in chemistry, there are also more intricate forms of structural chirality. One of them is the enantiomorphism of crystals, especially molecular crystals, that describes the lack of mirror symmetry in the unit cell. Its relation to molecular chirality is not obvious, but still an open question, which can be addressed with chiroptical tools. Vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) denotes chiral infrared (IR) spectroscopy that is susceptible to both, the molecular as well as the intermolecular space by means of vibrational transitions. When carried out in the solid state, VCD delivers a very rich set of non-local contributions that are determined by crystal packing and collective motion. Since its discovery in the 1970s, VCD has become the method of choice for the determination of absolute configurations, but its applicability reaches beyond towards the study of different crystal forms and polymorphism. This brief review summarises the theoretical concepts of crystal chirality and how computations of solid-state VCD can shed light into the intimate connection of chiral structure and vibrational optical activity.     

Achiral Calcium‐Oxalate Crystals with Chiral Morphology from the Leaves of Some Solanacea Plants

The leaves of some plants, particularly among the Solanacea, contain crystals of calcium oxalate with a peculiar chiral pseudo‐tetrahedral morphology, even though the calcium oxalate crystal structure is centrosymmetric, hence achiral. We studied the morphology of these crystals extracted from the leaves of three Solanacea plants: the potato, the hot pepper, and a species of wild Solanum. The crystal morphology was the same in all three species. Based on the examination of more than 100 crystals from each plant, we showed that the crystal morphology is chiral with invariant chirality. We suggest that morphological chirality is induced by macromolecules during nucleation from a specific, genetically encoded crystal plane, and is further established during subsequent controlled crystal growth. This is one of few examples where it is possible to deduce a molecular mechanism for biologically induced breaking of morphological symmetry in organisms. A very high level of recognition is required by the macromolecules to allow them to distinguish between symmetry‐related crystal planes. It is also surprising that this finely controlled mechanism of crystal formation, including the chiral morphology, has been conserved during evolution.     

Helicity Control in the Preparation of Chiral Co-crystals from Tryptamine and Achiral Carboxylic Acids by Pseudo-seeding

Abstract

Chiral crystals of tryptamine and achiral carboxylic acids such as p-chlorobenzoic acid, cinnamic acid, p-chlorocinnarnic acid and p-methylcinnamic acid were prepared by crystallization from the solutions of both components. All the crystals belonged to typical chiral space group P2₁2₁2₁. The crystal chirality is generated through the formation of a unidirectional twofold helix between the two components through quaternary ammonium salt interaction and hydrogen bonding in the lattice. This kind of spontaneous crystallization necessarily gives crystals of both clockwise and counterclockwise helicites. Here, pseudo-seeding based on utilizing these crystals as seed crystals was examined, resulting in successful helicity control in crystallization from solutions of tryptamine and different carboxylic acids.     

The Story Behind the Link between Molecular Chirality and Crystal Shape

Here we describe the story behind the link between molecular chirality and macroscopic phenomena, the latter being a probe for the direct assignment of absolute configuration of chiral molecules. First, a brief tour of the history of molecular stereochemistry, starting with the classic experiment reported by Pasteur in 1848 on the separation of enantiomorphous crystals of a salt of tartaric acid, and his conclusion that the molecules of life are chiral of single-handedness. With time, this study raised, inter alia, two fundamental questions: the absolute configuration of chiral molecules and how a molecule of given configuration shapes the enantiomorphous morphology of its crystal. As for the first question, following the beginning of crystal structure determination by X-ray diffraction in 1912, it took almost 40 years before Bijvoet assigned molecular chirality through the esoteric method involving anomalous X-ray scattering. We have been able to address and link both questions through ‘everyday concepts of left and right’ (in the words of Jack Dunitz) by the use of ‘tailor-made’ auxiliaries. By such means, it proved possible to reveal, through morphology, etch patterns, epitaxy and symmetry reduction of both chiral and, paradoxically, centrosymmetric crystals, the basic chiral symmetry of the molecules of life, the α-amino acids and sugars.     

Enantiodivergent formation of a chiral cytosine crystal by removal of crystal water from an achiral monohydrate crystal under reduced pressure

An achiral nucleobase cytosine forms an achiral monohydrate crystal (space group: P2₁/c) by crystallization from a water solution. It was found that the removal of crystal water under reduced pressure at room temperature afforded a chiral crystal of anhydrous cytosine (P2₁2₁2₁). The crystal chirality of anhydrous cytosine corresponds to the enantiotopic crystal face of the achiral monohydrate; therefore, when the enantiotopic b¹-face is exposed to the reduced pressure, dehydration occurred in the direction from the b¹-face to provide [CD(+)310_KBr]-cytosine crystal. In contrast, dehydration from the b²-face gave the opposite enantiomorphous [CD(?)310_KBr]-cytosine crystal. The correlation between enantiotopic faces and the formed crystal chirality is opposite to that from dehydration by heating. The formed chiral cytosine crystals act as a chiral trigger for asymmetric autocatalysis with enantioenrichment amplification of pyrimidylalkanol.     

Partial ordering of tripivaloylmethane at 110 K

Tripivaloylmethane [systematic name: 4‐(2,2‐dimethylpropanoyl)‐2,2,6,6‐tetramethylheptane‐3,5‐dione], C₁₆H₂₈O₃, is known to crystallize at room temperature in the space group R3m with three molecules in the unit cell. The molecules are conformationally chiral and pack so that each molecular site is occupied with equal probability by the two enantiomers. Upon cooling to 110 K, the structure partially orders; two molecules in the unit cell order into two different conformations of opposite chirality, while the third remains disordered. The symmetry of the resulting crystal is P3, with each of the molecules lying about a different threefold rotation axis. This paper describes an unusual case of order–disorder phase transition in which the structure partially orders by changes of molecular conformation in the single crystals. Such behaviour is of interest in the study of phase transitions and molecular motion in the solid state.     

A study on the stability,chirality, and theoretical spectra of the heterofullerenes C69X (X = N,P, As,B, Si,Ge)

There are two chiral and three achiral C₆₉X isomers possible. The achiral structures belong to the C_S group of symmetry while the chiral ones possess no symmetry elements. The stability of all five C₆₉X heterofullerenes for each of the X heteroatoms (X = N, P, As, B, Si, Ge) was determined at the (U)B3LYP/6-31G¹ level. The isomer population in an equilibrium mixture varies with the heteroatom type: the highest content of the chiral isomers was predicted for boron (92%) and nitrogen (47% plus 48%), while for the other heteroatoms studied the achiral isomers significantly dominate. For the chiral structures, four different sinister-rectus chirality measures, ^SRCM: pure geometrical, labeled, mass, and charge, were calculated by our CHIMEA program. We found that the labeled and mass chirality measures calculated for the two types of chiral isomers did correlate with each other. For each chiral C₆₉X molecule, spectroscopic VCD, IR, Raman, and NMR characteristics are discussed and demonstrated for their possible use for future identification and distinction of the isomers.     

Synthesis of ortho‐Phenylenebis(guanidine) Derivatives with Potential Chirality

We report the synthesis and potential chirality of ortho‐phenylenebisguanidines (BGs) with substituents at C(3) and C(6). Guanidinylation of 3,6‐disubstituted benzene‐1,2‐diamines with 2‐chloro‐4,5‐dihydro‐1,3‐dimethyl‐1H‐imidazolium chloride gave the corresponding BGs. X‐Ray crystallography showed that the two guanidine moieties occupy different faces of the benzene ring, creating potential chirality, although optical resolution of ^tBu‐substituted BG by chiral HPLC failed. However, a methylated acyclic bisguanidinium salt (BGms) was obtained as a chiral crystal with a space group of P2₁2₁2₁.     

Achieving Strong Circularly Polarized Luminescence through Cascade Cationic Insertion in Lead-free Hybrid Metal Halides

Generating circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) with simultaneous high photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) and dissymmetry factor (g_lum) is difficult due to usually unmatched electric transition dipole moment (μ) and magnetic transition dipole moment (m) of materials. Herein we tackle this issue by playing a “cascade cationic insertion” trick to achieve strong CPL (with PLQY of ~100 %) in lead-free metal halides with high g_lum values reaching −2.3×10⁻² without using any chiral inducers. Achiral solvents of hydrochloric acid (HCl) and N, N-dimethylformamide (DMF) infiltrate the crystal lattice via asymmetric hydrogen bonding, distorting the perovskite structure to induce the “intrinsic” chirality. Surprisingly, additional insertion of Cs⁺ cation to substitute partial (CH₃)₂NH₂⁺ transforms the chiral space group to achiral but the crystal maintains chiroptical activity. Further doping of Sb³⁺ stimulates strong photoluminescence as a result of self-trapped excitons (STEs) formation without disturbing the crystal framework. The chiral perovskites of indium-antimony chlorides embedded on LEDs chips demonstrate promising potential as CPL emitters. Our work presents rare cases of chiroptical activity of highly luminescent perovskites from only achiral building blocks via spontaneous resolution as a result of symmetry breaking.     

Desymmetrization and degree of chirality

Chiral objects, viewed as distorted derivatives of achiral ones, may be represented by points in a configuration space that is spanned by a set of symmetry coordinates derived for the symmetry group of the achiral object of highest symmetry. We propose a measure (d) that quantifies the displacement of the representative point for a chiral object away from thenearest point representing an achiral object in such a multi-dimensional configuration space. If the symmetry coordinates are chosen so as to yield a similarity invariant measure, then the valuesd; obtained for a series ofi chiral objects can serve as a basis for comparing the degrees of chirality of these objects. The chirality of triangles inE ² is studied by this method, and it is shown that the most chiral triangle in terms of this measure corresponds to one that is infinitely flat, and that may be approached but is never attained. This result is compared to others obtained previously for the same system by the use of different measures of chirality.On leave from the Department of Chemistry, University of the Western Cape, Bellville 7530, South Africa.     

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.     

Near-Infrared-Absorbing Chiral Open [60]Fullerenes

Though [60]fullerene is an achiral molecular nanocarbon with I_h symmetry, it could attain an inherent chirality depending upon a functionalization pattern. The conventional chiral induction of C₆₀ relies mainly upon a multiple addition affording a mixture of achiral and chiral isomers while their chiral function would be largely offset by the existence of pseudo-mirror plane(s). These are major obstacles to proceed further study on fullerene chirality and yet leave its understanding elusive. Herein, we showcase a carbene-mediated synthesis of C₁-symmetric chiral open [60]fullerenes showing an intense far-red to near-infrared absorption. The large dissymmetry factor of |g_abs|=0.12 was achieved at λ=820 nm for circular dichroism in benzonitrile. This is, in general, unachievable by other small chiral organic molecules, demonstrating the potential usage of open [60]fullerenes as novel types of chiral chromophores.     

Vibrational Circular Dichroism Unravels Supramolecular Chirality and Hydration Polymorphism of Nucleoside Crystals

Vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) spectroscopy has been widely used to study (bio)molecules in solution. However, its solid-state applications have been restricted due to experimental limitations and artifacts. Having overcome some of them, the first VCD study of nucleoside crystals is now presented. A two-orders-of-magnitude enhancement of VCD signal was observed due to high molecular order in the crystals and resulting supramolecular chirality. This allowed to obtain high-quality VCD spectra within minutes using minute amounts of samples. The VCD technique is extremely sensitive in detecting changes in a crystal order and is able to distinguish different hydration states of crystals. This elevates it to a new level, as a fast and efficient tool to study chiral crystalline samples. This study demonstrates that VCD is capable of near-instantaneous detection of hydration polymorphs and crystal degradation, which is of substantial interest in pharmaceutical industry (quality and stability control).     

1-[4-(二甲氨基)苯亚甲基氨基]-4-苯基硫脲的另一个手性对映体晶体结构

对-二甲氨基苯甲醛和苯基氨基硫脲缩合反应生成1-[4-(二甲氨基)苯亚甲基氨基]-4-苯基硫脲(DMB), 产物能从溶液中析出单一手性对映体晶体. 用单晶X射线衍射技术测定了它的绝对构型, 晶体属正交晶系, P2₁2₁2₁空间群, a＝0.7870(2) nm, b＝1.1560(2) nm, c＝1.6668(3) nm, V＝1.5164(5) nm³, Z＝4, D_c＝1.307 g/cm³, F(000)＝632, μ＝0.213 mm^－1, 2557个可观测点[I＞2s(I)]精修的最终残差因子: R＝0.0409, wR＝0.1061, Flack参数为0.00(9), 能够确定绝对构型. 化合物的晶体结构和大宗粉末样品的固体圆二色谱表明化合物在结晶过程中发生单一对映体的手性堆积.     

Chiral Crystals,Jack, Conductivity and Magnetism

Recently, the application of magnetic fields to chiral chemical systems has been rewarding. In a forward-looking 1986 paper, ‘Chiral Metals?’, Wallis, Karrer, and Jack D. Dunitz forecast ‘that the limitation to proper symmetry elements in a chiral conductor could be associated with the emergence of new properties, those connected with interactions between applied electric and magnetic fields and their internal counterparts.’ This was a prescient remark, but it has become manifest in ways that would not have been foreseen in its details by the authors. Here are reviewed the development of chiral conductors broadly imagined by Dunitz and coworkers, based on enantiopure tetrathiafulvalene derivatives that restrict space groups to those that have only symmetry operations of the first kind, as well as the new emergent properties associated with the transport of electrons when magnetic fields are applied to chiral crystals among other systems. These include electrical magnetochiral anisotropy (eMChA), inverse electrical magnetochiral anisotropy (ieMChA), helimagnetism and chirality induced spin selectivity (CISS). The conclusion discussing the circumstances under which achiral TTF crystals becomes chiral, only seems to introduce an oxymoron.     

Macroscopic Polarization Change of Mononuclear Valence Tautomeric Cobalt Complexes Through the Use of Enantiopure Ligand

The crystallization of a complex having electron transfer properties in a polar space group can induce the polarization switching of a crystal in a specific direction, which is attractive for the development of sensors, memory devices, and capacitors. Unfortunately, the probability of crystallization in a polar space group is usually low. Noticing that enantiopure compounds crystallize in Sohncke space groups, this paper reports a strategy for the molecular design of non-ferroelectric polarization switching crystals based on the use of intramolecular electron transfer and chirality. In addition, this paper describes the synthesis of a mononuclear valence tautomeric (VT) cobalt complex bearing an enantiopure ligand. The introduction of enantiomer enables the crystallization of the complex in the polar space group (P2₁). The polarization of the crystals along the b-axis direction is not canceled out and the VT transition is accompanied by a change in the macroscopic polarization of the polar crystal. Polarization switching via electron transfer is realized at around room temperature.     

Sm5Ga3

Single crystals of penta­samarium trigallium, Sm₅Ga₃, display tetra­gonal symmetry. The crystal structure was solved and refined in space group P4/ncc. The present work does not confirm the space group I4/mcm previously deduced from powder data measurements. One Sm atom is in a general position, and the other Sm atom and one of the Ga atoms are at sites with fourfold symmetry. The remaining Ga atom is at a site with twofold symmetry.     

The Enantioselective Role of the [N(C5H11)4]+Organic Cation in the Structure of the Molecular Magnet [N(C5H11)4][MnIIFeIII(C2O4)3]

A crystal of [N(C₅H₁₁)₄][Mn^IIFe^III(C₂O₄)₃] was studied by X-ray diffraction analysis: space group C222₁, a= 9.653(2) Å, b= 16.201(2) Å, c= 20.193(4) Å. The arrangement of the cations predetermines the formation of the crystal structure from anionic layers of the same chirality. The presence of two types of organic cation does not contradict the formation of crystals with left and right chirality and accounts for the data of Mössbauer spectroscopy, indicating two states of iron.     

Chemical applications of topology and group theory. XXI: Chirality in transitive skeletons and qualitative completeness [1]

This paper unifies the following ideas for the study of chirality polynomials in transitive skeletons: (1) Generalization of chirality to permutation groups not corresponding to three-dimensional symmetry point groups leading to the concepts of signed permutation groups and their signed subgroups; (2) Determination of the total dimension of the chiral ligand partitions through the Frobenius reciprocity theorem; (3) Determination of signed permutation groups, not necessarily corresponding to three-dimensional point groups, of which a given ligand partition is a maximum symmetry chiral ligand partition by the Ruch-Schönhofer partial ordering, thereby allowing the determination of corresponding chirality polynomials depending only upon differences between ligand parameters; such permutation groups having the point group as a signed subgroup relate to qualitative completeness. In the case of transitive permutation groups on four sites, the tetrahedron and polarized square each have only one chiral ligand partition, but the allene and polarized rectangle skeletons each have two chiral ligand partitions related to their being signed subgroups of the tetrahedron and polarized square, respectively. The single transitive permutation group on five sites, the polarized pentagon, has a degenerate chiral ligand partition related to its being a signed subgroup of a metacyclic group with 20 elements. The octahedron has two chiral ligand partitions, both of degree six; a qualitatively complete chirality polynomial is therefore homogeneous of degree six. The cyclopropane (or trigonal prism or trigonal antiprism) skeleton is a signed subgroup of both the octahedron and a twist group of order 36; two of its six chiral ligand partitions come from the octahedron and two more from the twist group. The polarized hexagon is a signed subgroup of the same twist group but not of the octahedron and thus has a different set of six chiral ligand partitions than the cyclopropane skeleton. Two of its six chiral ligand partitions come from the above twist group of order 36 and two more from a signed permutation group of order 48 derived from the P₃[P ₂] wreath product group with a different assignment of positive and negative operations than the octahedron.