Homologous and Heterologous Chiral Supramolecular Polymerization from Exclusively Achiral Building Blocks

Among the enticing issues of chiral origins are: how chirality is born from the initial achiral units and the mechanisms for the transfer of chiral information. In this work, by combining a physical vortex and chiral seeds, a general process is revealed to generate chiral supramolecular polymers from achiral C₃ -symmetric molecules. The symmetry-broken assemblies from the achiral molecules could work as chiral seeds to initiate the polymerization of either homologous or heterologous achiral monomers. Concomitantly, the fragmentation of the polymer caused by the vortex during the nucleation-elongation stages is shown to enlarge the domains of the chiral nuclei and then guide the polymer to grow into the predominant helicity with a high reactivity ratio. Moreover, the chiral structural information can be stored in different forms of assemblies. These new polymerization modes will provide guidance for the preparation of chiral materials.