Enhancement of Dissymmetry Factors Through Axial Elongation of Hetero[ <i>n</i> ]helicenes
ABSTRACT Helicenes are attractive emitters of circularly polarized light, yet strategies to enhance their luminescence dissymmetry factor ( g lum ) remain underdeveloped. Herein, we report a scalable, facile synthetic route to hetero[9]helicenes utilizing a benzofuran scaffolding strategy. This efficient one‐pot protocol provides access to the hetero[9]helicenes at gram scale, enabling progressive axial elongation to hetero[12]‐ and hetero[15]helicenes. Structural characterization by NMR and single‐crystal xX‐ray diffraction confirms increasing helical distortion and reduced helical pitch upon elongation. Chiroptical investigations reveal a pronounced enhancement of both absorption ( g abs ) and emission ( g lum ) dissymmetry factors with increasing ring count. Notably, annulation with a three‐ring extension via a naphtofuran unit yields a twofold increase in g lum , reaching 1.95 × 10 −2 at 475 nm for the [15]helicene. TD‐DFT calculations reproduce these trends, revealing that the enhancement originates from a systematic decrease in the electric transition dipole moment while the magnetic transition dipole moment remains constant, thereby increasing the relative magnetic contribution to the S 1 → S 0 transition as well as the angle between the dipole moments. These findings establish axial elongation as a robust design principle for amplifying chiroptical responses in helicenes.
Authors
- Mathias Hermann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3154-9106)
- Yann Lie (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4899-7423)
- Michael Pittelkow (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3371-9500)
- Kurt V. Mikkelsen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4090-7697)
- Christoffer Bræstrup (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1730-5818)
- Christoffer Warming
- Jeppe S. Mogensen
- Georg I. Junker (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-2537-593X)
Institutions
- University of Copenhagen (DK)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Angewandte Chemie
- Published
- 2026-08-14
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/ange.2703281
- Primary Topic
- Synthesis and Properties of Aromatic Compounds
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Københavns Universitet
- Novo Nordisk Fonden