Helicity controlled by the chirality of amino acid: two novel enantiopure chiral 3D architectures containing fivefold interwoven helicesElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Additional structural figures, and physical characterizations. CCDC reference numbers 851266 and 851267. For ESI and crystallographic data in CIF or other electronic format see DOI: 10.1039/c2ce25038a

• Main Authors: He, Jianghong, Zhang, Guangju, Xiao, Dongrong, Chen, Haiyan, Yan, Shiwei, Wang, Xin, Yang, Juan, Wang, Enbo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 24.04.2012
• ISSN: 1466-8033
• DOI: 10.1039/c2ce25038a

Two novel three-dimensional (3D) chiral coordination polymers, namely [Zn 4 (btc) 2 (Hbtc)( l -His) 2 (H 2 O) 4 ]·1.5H 2 O ( L-1 ) and [Zn 4 (btc) 2 (Hbtc)( d -His) 2 (H 2 O) 4 ]·1.5H 2 O ( D-1 ), have been assembled from zinc salt with mixed ligands 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylic acid (H 3 btc) and chiral histidine (His). Their structures were determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analyses, elemental analyses, infrared (IR) spectra, X-ray powder diffraction, circular dichroism (CD) spectra, and thermogravimetric (TG) analysis. Compounds L-1 and D-1 are enantiomers and exhibit unique 3D chiral frameworks containing fivefold interwoven helices, which represent the first examples of chiral metal-amino acid complexes containing n-fold interwoven helices. Furthermore, the helices in L-1 are left-handed, while those in D-1 are right-handed, which indicate that the handedness of helices can be controlled by the chirality of His bound to the metal. More wonderfully, the 3D framework can be simplified to a (3,4)-connected chiral net with an unprecedented (4·9 2 )(4·9 4 ·11) topology. Moreover, the luminescent properties of compound L-1 are discussed. Two novel 3D chiral complexes containing five-fold interwoven helices have been prepared by self-assemblies of chiral histidine and zinc salt in the presence of polycarboxylate ligand.