MicroED Elucidation of Diverse Solid-State Packing in a Family of Electron-Deficient Expanded Helicenes

10 September 2020, Version 2
This content is a preprint and has not undergone peer review at the time of posting.

Abstract

Solid-state packing plays a defining role in the properties of a molecular organic material, but it is difficult to elucidate in the absence of single crystals that are suitable for X-ray diffraction. Here, we demonstrate the coupling of divergent synthesis with microcrystal electron diffraction (MicroED) for rapid assessment of solid-state packing motifs, using a class of chiral nanocarbons – expanded helicenes – as a proof of concept. Two highly selective oxidative dearomatizations of a readily-accessible helicene provided a divergent route to four electron-deficient analogues containing quinone or quinoxaline units. Crystallization efforts consistently yielded microcrystals that were unsuitable for single crystal X-ray diffraction, but ideal for MicroED. This technique facilitated the elucidation of solid-state structures of all five compounds with <1.1 Å resolution. The otherwise-inaccessible data revealed a range of notable packing behavior, including four different space groups, homochirality in a crystal for a helicene with an extremely low enantiomerization barrier, and nanometer scale cavities. The results of this study suggest that MicroED will soon become an indispensable tool for high-throughput investigations in pursuit of next-generation organic materials.

Keywords

MicroED
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon
Helicene
Chiral nanocarbon
Self-assembly

Comments

Comments are not moderated before they are posted, but they can be removed by the site moderators if they are found to be in contravention of our Commenting Policy [opens in a new tab] - please read this policy before you post. Comments should be used for scholarly discussion of the content in question. You can find more information about how to use the commenting feature here [opens in a new tab] .
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy [opens in a new tab] and Terms of Service [opens in a new tab] apply.