Construction of light-responsive phase chirality from an achiral macrogelator

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

<P>To realize light-responsive phase chirality from an achiral macrogelator in the solid state, a disc-shaped achiral macrogelator (B1AZ) was newly synthesized. B1AZ was self-assembled into a lamello-columnar structure in the bulk state, while single-handed helical fibrils (<I>H</I>F) with 400 nm of helical pitch were constructed by side-by-side lateral association of achiral B1AZ molecules in carvone chiral solvents. Even after the elimination of chiral solvents, the helical morphology and its chiroptical properties were precisely preserved. However, <I>H</I>F was not sensitive to UV light due to intense lateral packing. For remote-controlling the helical morphology, a single-helix (<I>H</I>S) with an 18 nm helical pitch was formed by utilizing <I>cis</I>-B1AZ sol. Upon irradiation with UV light, <I>H</I>S was transformed into spheroids (<I>S</I>) because of the <I>trans</I>-to-<I>cis</I> photo-isomerization of the azobenzene (AZ) of B1AZ. The photo-switchable phase chirality can be applied in light-responsive smart materials.</P>