Chiral Crystals from Dynamic Combinatorial Libraries of Achiral Macrocyclic Imines

Dynamic combinatorial chemistry (DCC) was initially introduced as a means to solve problems of effective synthesis of complex compounds in solution. It benefits from the use of reversible reactions to connect simple building blocks under thermodynamic control. We present an application of DCC to generate structurally diverse crystalline complexes of macrocyclic imines, some of which crystallized as chiral crystals, despite the use of achiral substrates only. Features of imine complexes such as easy synthesis of building blocks and a high tendency to crystallize make them good candidates for studying the relationship between molecular structure and crystallinity.