Non-Covalent Self-Assembly Behaviors Based on Racemic Binaphthol Scaffolds

Understanding the fundamental mechanisms involved in the construction and organization of multi-scale structures is crucial for the design and manufacture of complex functional systems with long-range molecular arrangements. In this paper, a series of compounds have been synthesized using racemic binaphthols as the skeleton and a Suzuki coupling reaction for derivatization at the 6,6' positions, which resulted in various structures bearing different functional groups. Control over the self-assembly of these racemic binaphthol derivatives was successfully achieved by adjusting the types and positions of the substituents in the parent binaphthol compound, which revealed the key factors influencing the types of the non-covalent interactions and the self-assembly process. For example, the single-crystal structures of the resulting compounds indicated that assembly structures such as single helix and double helix based on non-traditional hydrogen bond motifs could be obtained, and fascinating non-covalent self-assembly structures such as molecular ladders and catenane discovered.