Glycyrrhizic acid based self-assembled helical nanostructures as scaffolds for asymmetric Diels-Alder reaction

Abstract Glycyrrhizic acid (GA), as a traditional herbal, can self-assemble into helical nanofiber in the water. The formed helical nanostructures can be employed as scaffolds for asymmetric Diels-Alder reaction. Through co-assembling with a series of achiral copper-ligands, the chirality of GA helical nanostructures can be transferred to catalytic site, and resulted assemblies showed moderated enantioselectivity toward catalysis of Diels-Alder reaction.