title: From helical to planar chirality by on-surface chemistry.
abstract: The chirality of molecular structures is paramount in many phenomena, including enantioselective reactions, molecular self-assembly, biological processes and light or electron-spin polarization. Flat prochiral molecules, which are achiral in the gas phase or solution, can exhibit adsorption-induced chirality when deposited on surfaces. The whole array of such molecular adsorbates is naturally racemic as spontaneous global mirror-symmetry breaking is disfavoured. Here we demonstrate a chemical method of obtaining flat prochiral molecules adsorbed on the solid achiral surface in such a way that a specific adsorbate handedness globally dominates. An optically pure helical precursor is flattened in a cascade of on-surface reactions, which enables chirality transfer. The individual reaction products are identified by high-resolution scanning-probe microscopy. The ultimate formation of globally non-racemic assemblies of flat molecules through stereocontrolled on-surface synthesis allows for chirality to be expressed in as yet unexplored types of organic-inorganic chiral interfaces.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physics, Czech Academy of Sciences, Cukrovarnická 10, 162 00 Prague 6, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Oleksandr
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Stetsovych
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physics, Czech Academy of Sciences, Cukrovarnická 10, 162 00 Prague 6, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Švec
authors.affiliation: Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences, Flemingovo nám. 2, 166 10 Prague 6, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Jaroslav
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vacek
authors.affiliation: Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences, Flemingovo nám. 2, 166 10 Prague 6, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Jana Vacek
authors.initials: JV
authors.lastname: Chocholoušová
authors.affiliation: Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences, Flemingovo nám. 2, 166 10 Prague 6, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Andrej
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jančařík
authors.affiliation: Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences, Flemingovo nám. 2, 166 10 Prague 6, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Jiří
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rybáček
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physics, Czech Academy of Sciences, Cukrovarnická 10, 162 00 Prague 6, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Krzysztof
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kosmider
authors.affiliation: Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences, Flemingovo nám. 2, 166 10 Prague 6, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Irena G
authors.initials: IG
authors.lastname: Stará
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physics, Czech Academy of Sciences, Cukrovarnická 10, 162 00 Prague 6, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Pavel
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-5645-8542
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jelínek
authors.affiliation: Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences, Flemingovo nám. 2, 166 10 Prague 6, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Ivo
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Starý