Ultrasound-Directed Symmetry Breaking and Spin Filtering of Supramolecular Assemblies from only Achiral Building Blocks

Yutao Sang, Qirong Zhu, Xiaoqin Zhou, Yuqian Jiang, Li Zhang*, Minghua Liu*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Herein we describe the self-assembly of an achiral molecule into macroscopic helicity as well as the emergent chiral-selective spin-filtering effect. It was found that a benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxamide (BTA) motif with an aminopyridine group in each arm could coordinate with AgI and self-assemble into nanospheres. Upon sonication, symmetry breaking occurred and the nanospheres transferred into helical nanofibers with strong CD signals. Although the sign of the CD signals appeared randomly, it could be controlled by using the as-made chiral assemblies as a seed. Furthermore, it was found that the charge transport of the helical nanofibers was highly selective with a spin-polarization transport of up to 45 %, although the chiral nanofibers are composed exclusively from achiral building blocks. This work demonstrates symmetry breaking under sonication and the chiral-selective spin-filtering effect.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere202215867
Number of pages8
JournalAngewandte Chemie - International Edition
Volume62
Issue number8
Early online date15 Dec 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 13 Feb 2023

Funding

Funding Information: Y.S. and Q.Z. gratefully acknowledge Prof. Ron Naaman, Weizmann Institute of Science, for helpful discussion. This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2021YFA1200301), National Natural Science Foundation of China (21890734, 21890730, and 92156018), and Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences, CAS, (QYZDJ‐SSW‐SLH044). Publisher Copyright: © 2022 Wiley-VCH GmbH.

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Catalysis
  • General Chemistry

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