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Amino Acid-Directed Synthesis of Chiral Manganese Chlorides with One-Dimensional Helical Structures
Yiwen Xu1, Juan Cheng1, Gangji Yi1
1College of Chemistry, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China.
Inorganic Chemistry
|July 2, 2026
Summary
Chiral metal halides with helical structures were synthesized using alanine. These materials exhibit red luminescence and unique optical properties, including second-harmonic generation and circularly polarized luminescence.
Area of Science:
- Inorganic Chemistry
- Materials Science
- Crystallography
Background:
- Metal halides are versatile compounds with diverse structural motifs.
- Chiral organic molecules can act as structure-directing agents in crystal engineering.
- Luminescence and nonlinear optical properties are key characteristics for advanced materials.
Purpose of the Study:
- To synthesize enantiomorphic metal halides using chiral amino acids.
- To investigate the structural, optical, and luminescent properties of the synthesized materials.
- To explore their potential applications in optics and photonics.
Main Methods:
- Hydrothermal synthesis of metal halide compounds.
- Single-crystal X-ray diffraction for structural analysis.
- Photoluminescence spectroscopy and nonlinear optical measurements.
Main Results:
- Successful synthesis of two enantiomorphic metal halide compounds, (l-alanine)[MnCl3(H2O)2] (1L) and (d-alanine)[MnCl3(H2O)2] (1D).
- Determination of unique 1D helical chain structures built from corner-sharing MnCl4(H2O)2 octahedra.
- Observation of red luminescence upon 415 nm excitation and investigation of second-harmonic generation and circularly polarized luminescence.
Conclusions:
- Chiral amino acids effectively direct the formation of enantiomorphic metal halide frameworks.
- The synthesized hybrid materials possess interesting luminescent and nonlinear optical properties.
- These findings open avenues for designing chiral functional materials with tailored optical responses.
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