Chiral Induction in Buckminsterfullerene Using a Metal–Organic Framework

Chiral induction is an emerging topic of interest in various areas of chemistry because of its relationship to the elusive mechanism of spontaneous symmetry breaking in nature. Buckminsterfullerene (C60) with the shape of a highly symmetric truncated icosahedron has rarely been referred for chiral induction due to the difficult symmetry breaking. In this work, we demonstrate that a chiral metal–organic framework (MOF) can provide a key field for chiral induction. C60 could be incorporated into the chiral nanochannels of the MOF using an in situ self‐assembly strategy. The circular dichroism spectra of the resulting nanocomposites showed an intense chiral signal in the absorption region of C60. Experimental and theoretical studies showed that this unprecedented chiral induction of C60 was attributed to hybridization of the molecular orbitals through a close association with the pore surface of the MOF. Our method can endow highly symmetric achiral compounds with chirality, paving the new way toward fabrication of novel chiral nanomaterials. Buckminsterfullerene (C60) is one of the most symmetrical molecules. Nanoconfinement of C60 within a chiral metal–organic framework (MOF) is able to perturb the inherent symmetry of C60 via the host–guest interactions. As a consequence, C60 confined in the MOF exhibited unprecedented substantial chiroptical properties.