Vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) spectroscopy was applied to study chirality recognition in the interlayer space of a clay mineral. Clay intercalation compounds including two kinds of chiral molecules were prepared. Firstly a cationic metal complex, Δ- or Λ-[Ru(phen)] (phen = 1,10-phenanthroline), was ion-exchanged into sodium montmorillonite. Thereafter a neutral organic molecule, R- or S-1,1'-bi-2-naphthol (denoted as R- or S-BINOL), was co-adsorbed. The solid state VCD spectra were recorded on the hybrid compounds thus prepared. The intensity of VCD peaks in the region of 1300-1400 cm, which were assigned to the bending vibrations of OH groups in BINOL, was remarkably dependent on the chirality relation between the two intercalated species. This implied that BINOL took a different conformation in response to the chirality of co-existing [Ru(phen)].

Coordinatively unsaturalted bis-chelated iridium(III) complex, [Ir(2-Bubzq)2Cl] (2-BubzqH = 2-butyl-benzo[h]quinoline), denoted as complex 1, was obtained by reacting iridium(III) trichloride with 2-BubzqH at 1:2 molar ratio. The results were contrasted with...

Vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) spectra are measured for dichloromethane solutions of the resolved enantiomers of [Ir(bzq)(phen)] (bzqH = benzo[h]quinoline; phen = 1,10-phenanthroline). The absolute configuration of each enantiomer is determined by comparing the experimental and theoretical spectra. The result is in accord with the results of the X-ray single crystallographic analysis on the enantiomeric crystal. Moreover, the importance of the CH-π interaction is derived between phen and a hydrogen atom in bzq in the molecular packing of both the enantiomeric and racemic crystals. A helical column is formed in the enantiomeric crystal in the tetragonal space group P4, whereas a tight racemic pair is formed in the racemic crystal in the monoclinic space group P2/n.