Design, synthesis, and self-assembly of optically active perylenetetracarboxylic diimide bearing two peripheral chiral binaphthyl moieties

An optically active perylenetetracarboxylic diimide (PTCDI) bearing two optically active binaphthyl moieties has been designed and synthesized. The self-assembly properties of these novel PTCDI derivatives in DMF/H2O were systematically investigated by electronic absorption, circular dichroism (CD) spectra, IR spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique. Observation of CD signal in the whole absorption region of PTCDI chromophore, indicates effective chiral information transfer from the chiral binaphthyl units to the central PTCDI chromophore at molecular level. The intermolecular π–π interaction between PTCDI rings together with the additionally formed hydrogen bonds between the crown ether moieties of (S)-1 and additional water molecules and the chiral discrimination of periphery chiral side chains induces further intensified asymmetrical perturbation of the chiral binaphthyl units to the central PTCDI chromophore during the self-assembly process, resulting in the formation of right-handed helical arrangement of corresponding molecules in a stack of PTCDI chromophores in aggregates. In addition, the formed nanostructures were revealed to show good semiconducting properties.