Inherently chiral nor-heteracalixarenes: design and synthesis via enantioselective intramolecular Suzuki–Miyaura reaction

Abstract

There has been a recent upsurge in research aimed at synthesizing inherently chiral molecules devoid of point, axial, planar and helical chiralities. We present herein our design and enantioselective synthesis of a series of inherently chiral macrocycles. These compounds, termed nor-heteracalixaromatics, feature a biaryl bond that replaces one of the aryl-heteroatom-aryl linkages found in classic heteracalix[4]aromatics. Macrocyclization of linear achiral substrates via an intramolecular Suzuki–Miyaura cross-coupling reaction affords the 15-membered cyclophane without any chiral elements in high yields and enantioselectivities. Notably, the formation of the aryl–aryl bond does not induce axial chirality at the biaryl linkage. Instead, it restricts the free rotation of an aromatic ring located four bonds away, leading to the inherent chirality of the macrocycle. The intriguing chiroptical properties of these compounds made them promising platform for the development of CPL emitters.