Chemical Research in Chinese Universities ›› 2026, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (3): 891-896.doi: 10.1007/s40242-026-5271-5

• Research Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Robust Homochiral Porous Molecular Crystals from the Ionic Self-assembly of a Binaphthyl Scaffold

ZOU Qiong1,3, ZHENG Yujie1,3, RUAN Feiying3, KONG Huating4, ZHAO Yu1,2,3, YU Yue1,3, XING Guolong1,2,3, BEN Teng1,2,3   

  1. 1. Zhejiang Engineering Laboratory for Green Syntheses and Applications of Fluorine-containing Specialty Chemicals, Institute of Advanced Fluorine-containing Materials, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, 321004, P. R. China;
    2. State Key Laboratory of Bioinspired Interfacial Materials Science, Suzhou Institute for Advanced Research, University of Science and Technology of China, Suzhou, 215123, P. R. China;
    3. Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Advanced Catalysis Materials, Institute of Physical Chemistry, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, 321004, P. R. China;
    4. Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 201204, P. R. China
  • Received:2025-11-08 Accepted:2026-01-03 Published:2026-06-02
  • Contact: YU Yue,E-mail:yu_yue@zjnu.edu.cn;XING Guolong,E-mail:xinggl@zjnu.edu.cn E-mail:yu_yue@zjnu.edu.cn;xinggl@zjnu.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2021YFA1200400), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 22475193, 91956108, 22475194), and the Jinhua Science and Technology Plan Project, China (No. 2024-4-008).

Abstract: Chiral crystalline porous materials demonstrate significant potential in enantiomeric separation, asymmetric catalysis, circularly polarized luminescence (CPL), and chiral sensing. However, constructing stable porous molecular crystals (PMCs) with well-defined chirality and permanent porosity remains challenging. Herein, we report the successful preparation of a pair of homochiral porous molecular crystals (PMCs), denoted as (R)-/(S)-BINAM-PMC, via ionic self-assembly of axially chiral 1,1'-binaphthyl-2,2'-diamine (BINAM) as a basic building block with 4,4'-biphenyldisulfonic acid (BPDS). The ionic pairs formed between sulfonate anions and ammonium cations assemble into one-dimensional (1D) chains through electrostatic interactions, which further extend into two-dimensional (2D) layered structures and ultimately stack into a three-dimensional (3D) porous framework with 1D channels. The material maintains structural and porous integrity after guest removal, demonstrating excellent stability and permanent porosity. Furthermore, circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy confirms its distinct chiral nature. This work provides valuable insights for the design and fabrication of stable chiral crystalline porous materials.

Key words: Porous melecular crystal, Chiral, Ionic self-assemble