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Updated: Feb 20, 2026

Hyperspectral Imaging as a Tool to Study Optical Anisotropy in Lanthanide-Based Molecular Single Crystals
Published on: April 14, 2020
Chiral transcription in self-assembled tetrahedral Eu4L6 chiral cages displaying sizable circularly polarized
Chi-Tung Yeung1, King-Him Yim1, Ho-Yin Wong1
1State Key Laboratory of Chirosciences, Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
Abstract:
Predictable stereoselective formation of supramolecular assembly is generally believed to be an important but complicated process. Here, we show that point chirality of a ligand decisively influences its supramolecular assembly behavior. We designed three closely related chiral ligands with different point chiralities, and observe their self-assembly into europium (Eu) tetrametallic tetrahedral cages. One ligand exhibits a highly diastereoselective assembly into homochiral (either ΔΔΔΔ or ΛΛΛΛ) Eu tetrahedral cages whereas the two other ligands, with two different approaches of loosened point chirality, lead to a significant breakdown of the diastereoselectivity to generate a mixture of (ΔΔΔΔ and ΛΛΛΛ) isomers. The cages are highly emissive (luminescence quantum yields of 16(1) to 18(1)%) and exhibit impressive circularly polarized luminescence properties (|g lum|: up to 0.16). With in-depth studies, we present an example that correlates the nonlinear enhancement of the chiroptical response to the nonlinearity dependence on point chirality.
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