Face-Rotaing Polyhedra (面方向性多面体)

Chiral molecular polyhedra have attracted extensive attention owing to their elegant architectures and applications in asymmetric catalysis and chiral molecular recognition. Inspired by the concept of Face-Rotating Polyhedra (FRP) conceived by Buckminster Fuller, we have constructed a series of molecular FRP from 2D chiral building blocks (i.e., truxene, azotruxene and tetraphenylethylene), which transfer chirality from two to three dimensions. These FRP represent a special form of molecular chirality. We used graph theory to construct a new family of molecular polyhedral and reveal the emerged chirality from the complex arrangements of 2D motifs. We also investigate the formation kinetics, interconversion and chiral amplification of these polyhedra through a combination of chiral HPLC, CD, MS and NMR.

Representatives

1. Xinchang Wang, Yu Wang, Huayan Yang, Hongxun Fang, Ruixue Chen, Yibin Sun, Nanfeng Zheng, Kai Tan, Xin Lu, Zhongqun Tian, Xiaoyu Cao. Assembled molecular face-rotating polyhedra to transfer chirality from two to three dimensions, Nat. Commun., 2016, 7, 12469-12476.

2. Yu Wang, Hongxun Fang, Ionut Tranca, Hang Qu, Xinchang Wang, Albert J. Markvoort, Zhongqun Tian, and Xiaoyu Cao, Elucidation of the origin of chiral amplification in discrete molecular polyhedral, Nat. Commun., 2018, 9, 488-496.

3. Hang Qu, Yu Wang, Zhihao Li, Xinchang Wang, Hongxun Fang, Zhongqun Tian, and Xiaoyu Cao, Molecular Face-Rotating Cube with Emergent Chiral and Fluorescence Properties. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2017, 139, 18142−18145.

4. Hang Qu, Zheyu Huang, Xue Dong, Xinchang Wang, Xiao Tang, Zhihao Li, Wenbin Gao, Haoliang Liu, Ruishan Huang, Zujin Zhao, Hui Zhang, Liulin Yang, Zhongqun Tian, and Xiaoyu Cao, Truncated Face-Rotating Polyhedra Constructed from Pentagonal Pentaphenylpyrrole through Graph Theory, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2020, 142, 16223−16228.