Search

Helicenes are fascinating molecules owing to their unusual properties and applications in many fields from catalysis to organic electronics. Herein, we report a straightforward pathway for the synthesis of helicene-like molecules on a gram scale in an enantiopure form. Thin-film materials with good propagating optical properties and very high chiroptical responses have been grown by using pulsed laser ablation without altering the structure or the enantiopurity of the molecules. Moreover, electronic and vibrational circular dichroism spectroscopies coupled with theoretical calculations enabled some dependences of the chiroptical properties with the structure to be highlighted, for example, effects of rigidification, aromatization, or the state of matter (liquid versus solid). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fabrication and chiroptical properties of organic thin films made from helicene ‐ like molecules have been described. The cover illustration represents an isotropic molecular thin film deposited on a glass substrate. It is penetrated by a linearly polarized light, which rotates due to high chirality of the material. Moreover, this thin film is reflected on water, making a symbolic mirror image of a pair of enantiomers. More information can be found in the Full Paper by M. Srebro ‐ Hooper, J. Crassous, L. Guy, et al. on page 3333 ff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]