Controlled helicity inversion, selective enantiomer release, and methanol recognition in azobenzene gel

Abstract

Constructing artificial supramolecular materials is important because they possesses wide application in many fields such as bio-, chiral and information science. Here, we prepared a glutamide–azobenzene gelator (GAZS) which is both chiral and amphiphilic. The GAZS gel exhibited different cotton effects depending on the solvents, in methanol the gel was endowed with chiroptical switch properties under external stimuli. Selective enantiomer release could be achieved by the shrinkage process of the gel in methanol under UV irradiation. In alcohol solvents only the gel in methanol is opaque and has a positive cotton effect. We believe our work could provide some insights into the solvent recognition and the construction of chiroptical supramolecular materials.