Homochiral supramolecular thin film from self-assembly of achiral triarylamine molecules by circularly polarized light

Abstract

Here, we report the formation of homochiral supramolecular thin film from achiral molecules, by using circularly polarized light (CPL) only as a chiral source, on the condition that irradiation of CPL does not induce a photochemical change of the achiral molecules. Thin films of self-assembled structures consisting of chiral supramolecular fibrils was obtained from the triarylamine derivatives through evaporation of the self-assembled triarylamine solution. The homochiral supramolecular helices with the desired handedness was achieved by irradiation of circularly polarized visible light during the self-assembly process, and the chiral stability of supramolecular self-assembled product was achieved by photopolymerization of the diacetylene moieties at side chains of the building blocks, with irradiation of circularly polarized ultraviolet light. This work provides a novel methodology for the generation of homochiral supramolecular thin film from the corresponding achiral molecules.