Stereospecificity and Self-Selectivity in the Generation of a Chiral Molecular Tetrahedron by Metal-Assisted Self-Assembly.

The chiral bidentate ligand (S,S)-1 reacts stereospecifically with Ga3+ to generate a [Ga4 (L)6 ]12- molecular tetrahedron although similar ligands generate [Ga2 (L)3 ]6- complexes. The assembly of this complex is self-selective as a racemic mixture of the ligand sorts by chirality to generate an enantiomeric pair of homochiral complexes. © 1998 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH, Weinheim, Fed. Rep. of Germany.