Dynamic induction of enantiomeric excess from a prochiral azobenzene dimer under circularly polarized light.

The ability to photoinduce enantiomeric excess from the chirality of circularly polarized light (CPL) is pertinent to the study of the origin of homochirality in biomolecules. Such CPL-induced reactions, including both chirality generation and formation of partial enantiomeric imbalance, from nonchiral starting compounds have been known, however, only for the conversion of diarylolefins into chiral helicenes. In this study we synthesized three different prochiral molecules, each featuring a pair of photoisomerizable phenylazo moieties arranged symmetrically upon the phenyl rings of an sp-hybridized carbon atom (), the phenyl rings of [2.