Chiral helicene, a fully conjugated system without stereogenic carbon, can filter spins effectively at room temperature, a consequence of the chiral-induced spin-selectivity effect. The chirality dictates the spin of the electrons transferred through helicene, and magnetoresistance devices based on these molecules show antisymmetric magnetoresistance versus H plots.

Unprecedented regioselective post-functionalization of racemic and enantiopure cationic diaza [4]helicenes is afforded.

A series of nine C‐functionalized cationic diazaoxatriangulene (DAOTA) dyes have been successfully synthesized and fully characterized, including X‐ray structural analysis of four derivatives. The introduction of electron‐withdrawing or ‐donating functions enables the tuning of both electro‐ and photochemical properties with, for instance, two consecutive (reversible) reductions or oxidations observed for nitro or amino derivatives, respectively. The substituents also impacted on the optical properties, with absorption maxima varying from λ=528 to 640 nm and fluorescence being shifted from the yellow to the red range, up to λ=656 nm.

The electrochemistry and annihilation electrochemiluminescence (ECL) of a series of chiral cationic helicene luminophores containing various substituents were investigated in acetonitrile solvent. The electrochemical characterization evidenced a systematic reversible reduction of cationic derivatives, whereas the oxidation could be reversible or not, depending on the nature of the core heteroatoms within the structure as well as the functional-group appendages. One of the key parameters governing the ECL intensity is, indeed, the formal redox potentials for the electrogeneration of the neutral radical and dication radical species, which will undergo the annihilation reaction. On that basis, a thermodynamic wall of efficiency was proposed in the case of ECL annihilation pathway to predict the formation efficiency of the emitting excited state and, eventually, the light emission's strength. This very simple wall is constructed by plotting the difference of formal potentials in function of the fluorescence wavelength, thus delimiting two domains where ECL is thermodynamically possible or unfavorable.

Synthesis, electronic and structural properties of a chiral NHC bearing a N-bonded cationic [4]helicene moiety are reported. This ligand is used to construct Au(I), Au(III) and Rh(I) complexes exhibiting far-red...