Versatile switching in substrate topicity: supramolecular chirality induction in di- and trinuclear host complexes

Supramolecular chirality effects have been achieved both for ditopic and monotopic substrates by using a programmable bis-salphen scaffold that incorporates either two or three Zn nuclei. The dinuclear host shows preferential chirogenesis in the presence of ditopic systems, whereas effective chirality transfer to the trinuclear complex is realized through monotopic binding. The mode of binding in the trinuclear host has been investigated through X-ray crystallography, CD measurements, UV/Vis spectroscopy, and DFT analysis. The bis-salphen scaffold holds promise for the development of substrate-specific host systems useful for determination of the absolute configuration of various types of organic molecules.