Tile synthesis of optically active crown ethers (8), (1 4), and (1 8 ) incorporating helicene molecular frameworks is reported. Their chiral recognition properties have been examined and show that (M)-(-)-( 14), although of the same helicity as ( M ) -( -) -( 8) and ( M ) -( -) -( 1 8 ) , exhibits opposite chiral recognition for the transport of methyl phenylglycinate, 1 -phenylethylamine, and 1,2diphenylethylamine, and that the pentahelicene crown (8) has a higher enantiomer selectivity than the hexahelicene crown (14) and hexa[7]circulene crown (18) towards these substrates. At 6.0-6.2% transport using (8), the optical purity of methyl phenylglycinate and 12-diphenylethylamine was as high as 7 7 4 2 % .Paper 9/0 1360A

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