Can Deep Learning Search for Exceptional Chiroptical Properties? The Halogenated [6]Helicene Case

The relationship between chemical structure and chiroptical properties is not always clearly understood. Nowadays, efforts to develop new systems with enhanced optical properties follow the trial-error method. A large number of data would allow us to obtain more robust conclusions and guide research toward molecules with practical applications. In this sense, in this work we predict the chiroptical properties of millions of halogenated [6]helicenes in terms of the rotatory strength (R). We have used DFT calculations to randomly create derivatives including from 1 to 16 halogen atoms, that were then used as a data set to train different deep neural network models. These models allow us to i) predict the R_max for any halogenated [6]helicene with a very low computational cost, and ii) to understand the physical reasons that favour some substitutions over others. Finally, we synthesized derivatives with higher predicted R_max obtaining excellent correlation among the values obtained experimentally and the predicted ones.