A Diastereodynamic Probe Transducing Molecular Length into Chiroptical Readout

Nature takes advantage of molecular conformational changes to express functions such as signaling across cellular membranes or allosteric protein activation. At the synthetic level, molecular recognition events have been used to induce conformational changes able to trigger functions such as catalysis or sensing. In this context, transduction of stereochemical information has been the leading strategy. In particular, stereodynamic elements have been extensively employed to amplify and/or transduce chiral information. In this article, we report a chiral supramolecular cage with two stereodynamic units, which invert their helicities according to the length of the molecular guest confined within the system. Interestingly, achiral information is transduced by the supramolecular system to different diastereomeric states that have opposite chiroptical absorptions. This is the first example in which it is possible to produce a continuous modulation of the chiroptical output of a system by varying a physical achiral molecular property (viz. molecular dimension). This phenomenon can be exploited for the establishment of novel methods to program conformational control, for the development of innovative sensors and/or for transduction of molecular properties into chiroptical information.