Richard A. van Delden

ADVERTISEMENT RETURN TO ISSUEPREVArticleNEXTChiroptical Molecular SwitchesBen L. Feringa, Richard A. van Delden, Nagatoshi Koumura, and Edzard M. GeertsemaView Author Information Laboratory of Organic Chemistry, Stratingh Institute, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG, Groningen, The Netherlands Cite this: Chem. Rev. 2000, 100, 5, 1789–1816Publication Date (Web):April 19, 2000Publication History Received11 August 1999Published online19 April 2000Published inissue 1 May 2000https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/cr9900228https://doi.org/10.1021/cr9900228research-articleACS PublicationsCopyright © 2000 American Chemical SocietyRequest reuse permissionsArticle Views13027Altmetric-Citations988LEARN ABOUT THESE METRICSArticle Views are the COUNTER-compliant sum of full text article downloads since November 2008 (both PDF and HTML) across all institutions and individuals. These metrics are regularly updated to reflect usage leading up to the last few days.Citations are the number of other articles citing this article, calculated by Crossref and updated daily. Find more information about Crossref citation counts.The Altmetric Attention Score is a quantitative measure of the attention that a research article has received online. Clicking on the donut icon will load a page at altmetric.com with additional details about the score and the social media presence for the given article. Find more information on the Altmetric Attention Score and how the score is calculated. Share Add toView InAdd Full Text with ReferenceAdd Description ExportRISCitationCitation and abstractCitation and referencesMore Options Share onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InRedditEmail Other access optionsGet e-Alertsclose SUBJECTS:Chirality,Chromatography,Irradiation,Light,Molecular structure Get e-Alerts

Biomolecular homochirality, the origin of which is still a puzzle, has challenged scientists to design chemical systems that provide chiral molecules through absolute asymmetric synthesis and to amplify a small stereochemical bias in such systems. The photoresolution of the enantiomers of helical-shaped, sterically overcrowded alkene 1 with circularly polarized light and the transduction of the stereochemical information by triggering the helical arrangement of a large collection of achiral molecules in a twisted nematic liquid crystalline phase (2) are examples of control and amplification of chirality.

Life could not exist without motion induced by a variety of molecular motors. The construction of artificial motors by chemical synthesis, which can power motions that lead to macroscopic detectable effects in a system, is a major endeavor in contemporary science. To move toward this goal, a host-guest system, composed of a nematic liquid crystal film doped with a chiral light-driven molecular motor, is assembled. Irradiation of the film results in unidirectional rotary motion of the molecular motor, which induces a motion of the mesogenic molecules leading to a molecular reorganization and, as a consequence, a change in the color of the film. In this way, by control of the rotary motion at the molecular level, color tuning over the entire visible spectrum is achieved. These findings demonstrate that a molecular motor can exert a visually observable macroscopic change in a material.