Impact of molecular size and shape on the supramolecular co‐assembly of chiral tricarboxamides. A comparative study

We report herein a comparative investigation of the chiral amplification features of a series of three families of  C 3 -symmetric tricarboxamides: 1,3,5-triphenylbenzenetricarboxamides (TPBAs), benzenetricarboxamides (BTAs) and oligo(phenylene ethynylene) tricarboxamides (OPE-TAs). As previously observed for BTAs and OPE-TAs, a similar dichroic response is obtained for TPBAs decorated with three, two or only one chiral side chain bearing stereogenic centers, thus confirming the efficient transfer of point chirality to the supramolecular helical aggregates. Unlike BTAs and OPE-TAs, the chiral amplification ability of TPBAs  in majority rules experiments  shows a negligible dependence on the number of chiral centers per monomeric unit, and stands the largest among the series of tricarboxamides. Detailed experimental and theoretical studies demonstrate that the rotation angle between the TPBA units in the helical stack is intermediate to that observed for BTAs and OPE-TAs. This feature strongly conditions the steric interactions between vicinal molecules in the stack and the final chiral amplification outcome. Theoretical calculations furthermore show that achiral side chains favor the interdigitation of the helical aggregates and thereby the formation of bundle superstructures.