Solvent-Mediated Chiral Induction in Low-Density Networks at the Liquid/Solid Interface

Over the last few years, the number of investigations dealing with emergence of chirality and chirality amplification at surfaces has increased significantly. These studies provide insight into the complexities of the origin of life, but are also very useful regarding applications such as heterogeneous catalysis and chiral separation. Decorating surfaces by the irreversible adsorption of chiral molecules or by physisorption of organic building blocks allows modification of the surface properties and functionality and provides an inexpensive alternative for top-down methods. The ability to accurately predict the outcome of the self-assembly would be a great advantage, but such predictions are, unfortunately, very challenging as experimental conditions such as solvent, substrate, concentration and temperature play a decisive role. Moreover, the presence of chiral centres can have a profound impact on the two-dimensional self-assembly process. This thesis focuses on the construction of two-dimensional low-density porous networks. The expression and induction of chirality by chiral solvent molecules will be studied. Porous structures are ideal candidates for preferential guest adsorption. In addition, chiral porous structures could potentially be used for enantioselective adsorption and separation. Nonetheless, such applications require homochiral networks which implies that the surface should be covered with pores of a specific chirality or handedness.nrpages: 214status: publishe