Direct Visualization of Enantiospecific Substitution of Chiral Guest Molecules into Heterochiral Molecular Assemblies at Surfaces

摘要

Chiral molecular recognition is a vital concept in many fields due to its fundamental importance in biological systems and its pivotal role in controlling key events in technological applications such as enantioselective chemistry, catalysis, chiral separation, and sensors. However, chiral host-guest interactions are difficult to probe at the nanoscale with spatial tools, and attention has recently turned to supramolecular assemblies at solid surfaces as model systems to study the mechanisms driving molecular recognition. Surface assemblies offer the dual advantage of providing well-controlled lateral arrangements within which guest molecules can be captured, and also being amenable to interrogation by sophisticated spectroscopic and imaging techniques. This approach has allowed chiral recognition by homochiral assemblies to be captured at the molecular level, ranging from self-recognition processes that drive an enantiomeric mixture to undergo homochiral segregation, to chiral recognition of dissimilar molecules.