Supramolecular Chirality: Solvent Chirality Transfer in Molecular Chemistry and Polymer Chemistry

Controlled mirror symmetry breaking arising from chemical and physical origin is currently one of the hottest issues in the field of supramolecular chirality. The dynamic twisting abilities of solvent molecules are often ignored and unknown, although the targeted molecules and polymers in a fluid solution are surrounded by solvent molecules. We should pay more attention to the facts that mostly all of the chemical and physical properties of these molecules and polymers in the ground and photoexcited states are significantly influenced by the surrounding solvent molecules with much conformational freedom through non-covalent supramolecular interactions between these substances and solvent molecules. This review highlights a series of studies that include: (i) historical background, covering chiral NaClO3 crystallization in the presence of D-sugars in the late 19th century; (ii) early solvent chirality effects for optically inactive chromophores/fluorophores in the 1960s–1980s; and (iii) the recent development of mirror symmetry breaking from the corresponding achiral or optically inactive molecules and polymers with the help of molecular chirality as the solvent use quantity.