Project information
Asymmetric photochemical reactions with chiral polymeric templates and within liquid crystals

A wide spectrum of synthetic polymers and aggregates can adopt helical conformation in a solution or in melt. Many types of synthetic polymers are optically active mainly due to helical secondary chain structure. The stereoregular helical polymers as templates could have several attractive features: the uniform microenvironment within the polymer, possibility to prepare single-helical polymeric structure and its easy separation from the reaction mixture. The study is important from two points of view: preparation of templates for asymmetric phototransformations and syntheses of important molecules, and study of the mechanism of the chirality transfer from macromolecular level to small molecules through noncovalent forces. The photochemical reactions often afford products virtually inaccessible by ground-state reactions. The utilization of the chiral liquid crystals as a medium for asymmetric photochemistry is the second objective of the project.