Citation: Xiaoqian Wang, Yanling Shen, Long Chen, Lizhi Fang, Kuppusamy Kanagaraj, Ming Rao, Chunying Fan, Wanhua Wu, Cheng Yang. Azobenzene-winged phenanthroline for supramolecular chirality sensing and multidimensional chiroptical manipulation via solvent, light, temperature, and redox[J]. Chinese Chemical Letters, ;2026, 37(2): 111710. doi: 10.1016/j.cclet.2025.111710 shu

Azobenzene-winged phenanthroline for supramolecular chirality sensing and multidimensional chiroptical manipulation via solvent, light, temperature, and redox

Xiaoqian Wang ^{a, 1} ,
Yanling Shen ^{a, 1} ,
Long Chen ^a ,
Lizhi Fang ^a ,
Kuppusamy Kanagaraj ^{a, b, **,} ,
Ming Rao ^a ,
Chunying Fan ^a ,
Wanhua Wu ^{a, *,} ,
Cheng Yang ^{a, *,}

a.
Key Laboratory of Green Chemistry & Technology of Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China
b.
Center for Supramolecular Chemistry & Catalysis and Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China

^**

kanagaraj@shu.edu.cn

wuwanhua@scu.edu.cn

yangchengyc@scu.edu.cn

Received Date: 24 April 2025
Revised Date: 30 July 2025
Accepted Date: 12 August 2025
Available Online: 12 August 2025

Figures(7)

Azobenzene-winged phenanthrolines (L1 and L2) were designed, synthesized, and fully characterized. Ligand L1 forms an in-situ cobalt complex, which has been effectively employed as a circular dichroism (CD)-active chiral sensor. The resulting ternary complex (L1–Co²⁺–amino alcohol) exhibits pronounced exciton-coupled circular dichroism (ECCD) signals at the characteristic azobenzene absorption bands. These signals arise from efficient chirality transfer from the chiral amino alcohol to the azobenzene chromophores, enabling the determination of the absolute configuration of chiral amino alcohols. Accordingly, the L1–Co²⁺ coordination system demonstrates considerably potential in chirality sensing applications. Remarkably, the induced ECCD signals are highly responsive to multiple external stimuli, including photoirradiation, solvent polarity, temperature, and redox conditions. In particular, temperature and redox changes can induce a reversible inversion of the ECCD signal, thereby establishing this system as a multifunctional, stimuli-responsive chiroptical molecular switch.
- Phenanthroline derivative,
- Azobenzene,
- Amino alcohols,
- Chirality sensing,
- Stimuli-response
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