Photoactive Functional Soft Materials (Preparation, Properties, and Applications) || Photochemical Chirality Induction and Inversion in Soft Materials

摘要： Chirality or “handedness” is a prerequisite of the biological world, where life exists in a specific chirality. In living organisms, almost all the sugars are exclusively right‐handed (d‐isomer), amino acids are left‐handed (l‐isomer), and DNA coils assemble into right‐handed helices. The reason behind this homochirality is still an unresolved issue. Inspired by the natural homochirality, the scientific community has been interested in exploring the mechanism of transmission of chirality from the molecular level of monomeric units to the macro‐ or supramolecular level, as well as the origin of chirality. The supramolecular chirality in nature from self‐assembled achiral molecules and its specific handedness play a crucial role in the evolution of life and the development of supramolecular materials. While the chirality of molecules is of configurational and conformational origin, supramolecular level chirality arises from the organization of molecules, with formation of a chiral superstructure by means of long‐range positional and orientational orders of molecules.