Self-assembled helical columnar superstructures with selective homochirality

Electron donor–acceptor (EDA) complexes of triphenylene (TP) based side-chain discotic liquid crystalline polymers doped with chiral acceptors exhibit a remarkable supramolecular polymer effect upon reaching a critical doping amount, complying with the discrete columnar stack (DCS) based modular assembly mechanism. Furthermore, selective left- or right-handed homochirality determined by the enantiomeric nature of chiral dopants has been achieved, with a helical polymer backbone surrounded by chiral supramolecular columns through modular assembly between the chiral dopant and DCS subunits, revealing a strong circular dichroism (CD) activity reminiscent of the fascinating hierarchically assembled superstructure of tobacco mosaic virus (TMV). Such polymeric EDA stoichiometric complexation and generation of single-handedness provides inspiring insight into and guidance for constructing various chiral functional materials via non-covalent interactions in a facile way, and also enhances in-depth understanding of the origin of biological helical structures and chiral basis of life.