Light-induced Chiral Self-assembly of Achiral Triphenylamines with Controlled Number of Hydrogen Bondings

Abstract We report the self-assembly of achiral triphenylamine molecules with different numbers of hydrogen bonding sites. The supramolecular chirality was controlled by the symmetry breaking effect of circularly polarized light (CPL) occurring in the nucleation step. As the number of hydrogen bonding sites increased, the stability of supramolecular helices increased, and reversible transformation of the right- and left-handed helices by CPL became feasible only with aid of ultra-sonication. In contrast, triphenylamine molecules without hydrogen bonding sites did not undergo light-induced self-assembly.