Chiral double helical silver complexes: subcomponent self-assembly and self-sorting

Four novel homochiral dinuclear Ag(I) complexes have been successfully synthesized by subcomponent self-assembly. Highly selective narcissistic self-sorting behavior was observed in the self-assembly process of the Ag helicates from a mixture of similar components that only alkyl chain different. This was confirmed by overlaying the 1H NMR of the mixture with the individually synthesized chiral helicates.