Diastereoselective self-assembly of double-stranded helicates from Tröger's base derivatives.

[structure: see text]. Several ligands based on the rigid, V-shaped structure of Tröger's base bearing 2,2'-bipyridine and 2-pyridylmethanimine moieties have been synthesized. These ligands undergo diastereoselective self-assembly to dinuclear double-stranded D2d-symmetric helicates upon coordination to copper(I) and silver(I) ions as elucidated by NMR techniques and ESI mass spectrometric methods.