Chiral/ring closed vs. achiral/open chain triazine-based organogelators: induction and amplification of supramolecular chirality in organic gels

The purpose of this study is to compare the gelling behavior of two molecules: a chiral compound and its achiral counterpart. The chiral partner is characterized by a rigid, chiral pyrrolidine nucleus, while the achiral one contains a fl exible diethanolamine moiety. The chiral compound is an already known good organogelator, but also the achiral compound shows remarkable gelling properties. Very interestingly, a small fraction of the chiral compound induces chirality and strong CD e ff ects in its aggregates with the achiral one. The observed chirality ampli fi cation corresponds to a peculiar sergeant-and-soldier e ff ect. Molecular modelling and CD calculations suggested a model for the supramolecular assembly of hetero- aggregates that fi ts the experimental data.