Self‐Assembly of Racemic Alanine Derivatives: Unexpected Chiral Twist and Enhanced Capacity for the Discrimination of Chiral Species

Abstract

Twisted ribbons were formed by the self-assembly of racemic alanine derivatives (middle picture), whereas only flat nanostructures were obtained from the individual enantiomers (left). The twist was sensitive to a slight enantiomeric excess and showed remarkable macroscopic chirality. Moreover, it could discriminate various amino acid derivatives (right) and even enabled the determination of the ee value of a mixed system.