Intermediate States Directed Chiral Transfer on a Silver Surface

Chiral synthesis on surfaces has acquired tremendous interest. We herein report a novel approach of two-dimensional chiral transfer directed by metal–organic intermediate states on a silver surface. With initial deposition at low temperature, the achiral 4,4′-dihydroxybiphenyl molecules self-assemble into large scale two-dimensional networks with 4-fold symmetry via intermolecular hydrogen bonding. Fine controlled annealing, however, leads to the formation of tetramer-like chiral metal–organic hybrids, which self-organize into enantiomeric islands on the Ag(100) surface. Subsequent ortho C–C couplings of the reactants lead to dimer products. Of great importance, the chirality expressions of the dimer products are observed to be transferred directly from that of the tetramer intermediate states. The detailed reaction pathways are rationalized by DFT calculations and synchrotron-based XPS experiments, demonstrating the mechanisms of the chiral transfer.