Simultaneous discovery of chiral and achiral dyes: elucidating the optical functions of helical and flag-hinged boron tetradentate complexes.

The construction of novel complexes can lead to the manifestation of unexpected structures and properties, thereby making chemical exploration in experiments a potential source for novel discoveries. In this study, by reacting 6,6'-dihydrazineyl-2,2'-bipyridine with acyl chlorides and subsequently coordinating with boron trifluoride, two different boron-tetradentate ligand complexes were simultaneously generated. One of these complexes exhibited a unique structure in which tetra-BF moieties coordinated to all four coordination sites of the ligand molecule, forming a flag-hinged structure around the bipyridine part.