Paul Tinnemans, Marc Geerts, Paula C. P. Teeuwen, Jean-Valère Naubron, Anne Swartjes, Jiang-Kun Ou-Yang, Sara Chentouf, Pieter J. Gilissen, Johannes A. A. W. Elemans, Nicolas Vanthuyne, Jeanne Crassous, Danni Wang, Floris P. J. T. Rutjes, Roeland J. M. Nolte, Geerts, Marc [0000-0002-9064-2271], Wang, Danni [0000-0002-1612-7116], Teeuwen, Paula CP [0000-0002-2571-8161], Tinnemans, Paul [0000-0002-3930-7056], Vanthuyne, Nicolas [0000-0003-2598-7940], Naubron, Jean-Valère [0000-0002-8523-4476], Crassous, Jeanne [0000-0002-4037-6067], Elemans, Johannes AAW [0000-0003-3825-7218], Nolte, Roeland JM [0000-0002-5612-7815], Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository, Radboud University [Nijmegen], Institut des Sciences Moléculaires de Marseille (ISM2), Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-École Centrale de Marseille (ECM)-Institut de Chimie du CNRS (INC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Fédération des Sciences Chimiques de Marseille (FRSCM), Synthèse Caractérisation Analyse de la Matière (ScanMAT), Université de Rennes (UR)-Institut de Chimie du CNRS (INC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut des Sciences Chimiques de Rennes (ISCR), Université de Rennes (UR)-Institut National des Sciences Appliquées - Rennes (INSA Rennes), Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA)-Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA)-Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Rennes (ENSCR)-Institut de Chimie du CNRS (INC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Radboud university [Nijmegen], École Centrale de Marseille (ECM)-Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Institut de Chimie du CNRS (INC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Rennes 1 (UR1), Université de Rennes (UNIV-RENNES)-Université de Rennes (UNIV-RENNES)-Institut de Chimie du CNRS (INC), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Chimie du CNRS (INC)-Université de Rennes 1 (UR1), Université de Rennes (UNIV-RENNES)-Université de Rennes (UNIV-RENNES)-Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Rennes (ENSCR)-Institut National des Sciences Appliquées - Rennes (INSA Rennes), and Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA)-Université de Rennes (UNIV-RENNES)-Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA)
Porphyrin cage-compounds are used as biomimetic models and substrate-selective catalysts in supramolecular chemistry. In this work we present the resolution of planar-chiral porphyrin cages and the determination of their absolute configuration by vibrational circular dichroism in combination with density functional theory calculations. The chiral porphyrin-cages form complexes with achiral and chiral viologen-guests and upon binding one of the axial enantiomorphs of the guest is bound selectively, as is indicated by induced-electronic-dichroism-spectra in combination with calculations. This host-guest binding also leads to unusual enhanced vibrational circular dichroism, which is the result of a combination of phenomena, such as rigidification of the host and guest structures, charge transfer, and coupling of specific vibration modes of the host and guest. The results offer insights in how the porphyrin cage-compounds may be used to construct a future molecular Turing machine that can write chiral information onto polymer chains., Vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) spectroscopy can be useful for determining the absolute configuration of chiral molecules, as long as the signal intensities are high enough. Here, the authors establish the absolute configurations of two large chiral porphyrin cages and, notably, discover that host-guest binding enhances their VCD intensities.