The use of circular dichroism spectroscopy for studying the chiral molecular self‐assembly: An overview

Abstract

Self-assembly plays an important role in the formation of many chiral biological structures and in the preparation of chiral functional materials. Therefore the control of chirality in synthetic or biological self-assembled systems is important either for the comprehension of recognition phenomena or to obtain materials with predictable and controllable properties. Circular dichroism was developed to study molecular chirality, however, because of its outstanding sensitivity to chiral perturbations of the system under investigation; it has been extended more recently to supramolecular chemistry. In particular, self-assembly processes leading to the formation of chiral supramolecular architectures (and eventually to gels or liquid crystal phases) can be monitored by CD. Furthermore, CD spectroscopy often allows one to obtain structural information on the assembled structures. This review deals with representative contributions to the study of supramolecular chirality by means of circular dichroism.

Hydrazinoanthrylboronic acids as exciton‐coupled circular dichroism (ECCD) probes for multivalent catechols, particularly epigallocatechin gallate

“…[30][31][32][33][34] Moreover, ECCD is broadly appreciated as invaluable, highly sensitive and selective method to study conformational changes, self-assembly and ligand binding of proteins, DNA, RNA and complex synthetic architectures. [30][31][32][33][34] In contrast to this frequent use in structural studies, ECCD is rarely used to study functions. This is surprising because advantages known from structural studies, such as high sensitivity without interference from achiral components of complex systems or the ratiometric detection of the bisignate ECCD Cotton effect to exclude artifacts, apply for functional studies in complex systems as well.…”

Molecular and supramolecular chirality in gemini‐tartrate amphiphiles studied by electronic and vibrational circular dichroisms

“…8,9 Because of its high sensitivity, this spectroscopic technique has been widely practiced to monitor the formation of helical superstructures and the formation of gels through self-assembly processes. 10 A number of useful correlations, rules, or procedures for relating the signs of the measured optical activity and absolute configuration have been established for a variety of structural motifs. Meanwhile, all such empirical methods suffer from exceptions that in some cases were preceded by incorrect assignments.…”

Detection of the activity of ion channels and pores by circular dichroism spectroscopy: G‐quartets as functional CD probes within chirogenic vesicles

“…Other classical topics that are routinely addressed by CD spectroscopy include conformational changes, self-assembly, and ligand binding of proteins, DNA, RNA, and complex synthetic architectures. [1][2][3] In sharp contrast to this popular use to study structures, CD spectroscopy is rarely used to study functions. There are no obvious reasons for this neglect.…”