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Spin me right round - a versatile BTA-based alignment media toolbox for enhanced enantiodiscrimination
Matthias Brauser1, Martin Leyendecker1, Volker Schmidts1
1Clemens-Schöpf-Institut für Organische Chemie und Biochemie, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Peter Grünberg-Str.16, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany. cthiele@thielelab.de.
Chemical Communications (Cambridge, England)
|July 28, 2025
Summary
Chiral benzenetricarboxamides (BTAs) form liquid crystals for measuring residual dipolar couplings. These novel chiral media demonstrate enantiodiscriminating capabilities and scalability for advanced NMR applications.
Area of Science:
- Supramolecular Chemistry
- Liquid Crystals
- Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
Background:
- Benzenetricarboxamides (BTAs) are versatile building blocks for self-assembling into lyotropic liquid crystals (LLCs).
- Lyotropic liquid crystals serve as alignment media in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy.
- Measuring residual dipolar couplings (RDCs) provides crucial structural information about molecules.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a toolbox of chiral BTA-based LLCs for use as alignment media.
- To enable the measurement of residual dipolar couplings (RDCs) using these novel media.
- To investigate the enantiodiscriminating properties and scalability of these chiral systems.
Main Methods:
- Synthesis of asymmetrically substituted chiral BTAs.
- Formation of lyotropic liquid crystals (LLCs) from BTA building blocks.
- Utilizing sergeant and soldier (SaS) systems with mixtures of chiral and achiral BTAs.
- Evaluation of enantiodiscriminating capabilities and scalability.
Main Results:
- Successful creation of chiral BTA-based LLCs.
- Demonstration of these LLCs as effective alignment media for RDC measurements.
- Characterization of the enantiodiscriminating properties of the developed systems.
- Assessment of the scalability of the BTA-based chiral LLCs.
Conclusions:
- Chiral BTA-based LLCs offer a promising new class of alignment media.
- These systems are suitable for measuring RDCs and exhibit enantiodiscrimination.
- The toolbox approach provides scalable and versatile options for NMR studies.
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