An organogel system can control the stereochemical course of anthracene photodimerization

摘要

A novel photoresponsive organogel with a binary gelator containing 2-anthracenecarboxylic acid shows a high degree of stereochemical control, resulting in head-to-head photocyclo-dimers exclusively together with significant enantiomeric excess induced by the chiral counterpart of the gelator.Chirality that is induced, monitored, controlled, or applied via the principles of a supramolecular approach is a modern interdisciplinary field of research that deals with the transfer of asymmetry information within molecular systems via noncovalent interactions from a chiral entity to a prochiral substrate. Primarily, they include electrostatic, hydrogen-bonding, van der Waals and π-π interactions, in addition to steric effects, acting individually or cooperatively to produce the chiral structures. In this context, stereochemical control in a chiral photochemical process such as photo-cycloaddition is one of the most intriguing issues from the mechanistic and synthetic points of view.