Chirality Control and Its Memory at Microphase-Separated Interface of Self-Assembled Chiral Block Copolymers for Nanostructured Chiral Materials

Abstract

Here, we show the induced chirality of an achiral chromophoric dye as a joint of polylactide-containing chiral block copolymers (BCPs*) driven by self-assembly, giving the achiral dyes preferentially arranged in a one-handed helical array at the microphase-separated interface. This helical arrangement of the achiral dyes can be "memorized" after hydrolysis of the polylactides in the BCPs* and serves as a chiral template for further chirality induction of different achiral dyes, probably through attractive aromatic pi-pi interactions at the interface, producing nanostructured chiral materials with tunable circular dichroism signals at desired wavelengths.