Self-assembly of a Gemini-shaped, chiral amphiphilic hexa-perihexabenzocoronene having two chiral oxyalkylene side chains, along with two lipophilic side chains, yields graphitic nanotubes with one-handed helical chirality. The nanotubes are characterized by an extremely high aspect ratio of >1,000 and have a uniform diameter of 20 nm and a wall thickness of 3 nm. The nanotubes with right-and left-handed helical senses were obtained from the (S)-and (R)-enantiomers of the amphiphile, respectively, due to an efficient translation of point chirality into supramolecular helical chirality. The (S)-and (R)-enantiomers coassemble at varying mole ratios to give nanotubes, whose circular dichroism profiles are almost unchanged over a wide range of the enantiomeric excess of the amphiphile (100 -20%). The high level of chirality amplification thus observed indicates a long-range cooperativity in the selfassembling process. In sharp contrast, a hexabenzocoronene amphiphile with chiral lipophilic side chains did not form nanotubular assemblies. The present work demonstrates the majority rule in noncovalent systems and also may provide a synthetic strategy toward realization of molecular solenoids. chirality ͉ self-assembly H elicity is one of the most essential structural elements for certain biomolecules such as peptides and DNA. The prominent functions of these biological components have motivated chemists to design artificial helical architectures (1-8), which can be used for a variety of applications such as chiral separation (9, 10) and sensing (11-15), asymmetric synthesis (16), liquid crystals (17-19), nonlinear optics (20, 21), and so forth. Recently, a hot issue of chirality has emerged in relation to the helicity of the hexagonal carbon lattice in carbon nanotubes, because it determines the conductive properties of carbon nanotubes (22-24). Conductive polymers with helical architectures (25) also have attracted attention in view of the concept of molecular solenoids (26,27), although this concept has yet been a dream of scientists, because there are no molecular objects that fulfill certain requisites for conductivity and helicity. Here, we report an example of conductive tubular objects consisting of one-handed helical arrays of a -stacked chiral molecular graphene. Self-assembly of hexa-peri-hexabenzocoronene (HBC) derivatives to form discotic liquid crystals and nanofibers has been studied extensively by Müllen and coworkers (28,29). We recently found that an amphiphilic HBC derivative (1) (Fig. 1) self-assembles in polar organic solvents such as tetrahydrofuran (THF) to give graphitic nanotubes, whose wall consists of a bilayer tape formed from bilaterally coupled columns of -stacked HBC units (30). In the course of this work, we have noticed that the self-assembly of 1, although achiral, gives a mixture of coiled and tubular assemblies under certain conditions, suggesting that the tubular objects also bear a helical structural element. This observation prompted us to design chiral HBC amphiphiles 2 and 3 (Fi...

Acyclic diene metathesis (ADMET) in CH2Cl2 of a Gemini-shaped nonionic hexabenzocoronene amphiphile (2), bearing triethylene glycol chains with terminal allylic functionalities, resulted in spontaneous formation of graphitic nanotubes with a cross-linked surface. Without ADMET, 2 did not self-assemble to form a tubular structure due to a high solubility in CH2Cl2. Although 2 formed nanotubes in THF, ADMET on the surface of the preformed nanotubes in THF proceeded only sluggishly and resulted in partial disruption of the tubular structure. The cross-linked nanotubes showed a softening temperature (244 degrees C) higher than that of the uncross-linked version (195 degrees C) and preserved their hollow structure much longer upon heating.