Controlled chiral supramolecular assemblies of water soluble achiral porphyrins induced by chiral counterions

Abstract

We demonstrate a controlled chiral supramolecular assembly of achiral porphyrins induced by chiral D- and L-arginine (Arg) in water. Induction of chirality was confirmed by circular dichroism. TEM and SEM images confirm that these twisted ribbons are indeed formed by right- and left-handed helices with D- and L-Arg in water, respectively. The chiral assembly pathways described here are hierarchical, opening up the possibility that simple changes on microscopic (nm) length scales can be used to control structures on macroscopic (mm) length scales.