Photocontrolled morphological conversion and chiral transfer of a snowflake-like supramolecular assembly based on azobenzene-bridged bis(dibenzo-24-crown-8) and a cholesterol derivative

A snowflake-like supramolecular clockwise-helical assembly was fabricated via the host–guest interaction of trans-azobenzene-bridged bis(dibenzo-24-crown-8) (trans-1) and a cholesterol derivative, while a snowflake-like supramolecular non-helical assembly can be obtained upon complexation of cis-1 after UV-irradiation, accompanying the disappearance of circular dichroism signals from the azobenzene zone of 1.