Computational study of a chiral supramolecular arrangement of organic structure directing molecules for the AFI structure

Molecular mechanics computational methods have been employed to study the structure directing effect of S-(-)-1-benzyl-2-pyrrolidiniummethanol molecules towards microporous aluminophosphate materials with the AFI structure. These chiral molecules form dimers inside the one-dimensional AFI channel, which are the active structure-directing agents in the synthesis. Four different conformers of the S-(-)-1-benzyl-2-pyrrolidiniummethanol molecule are in principle available; of these, the S,S-trans shows a marked stability in dimeric form. Self-assembly between adjacent dimers generates a helicoidal, and hence chiral arrangement of the organic molecules, which extends with the same direction of rotation through the whole solid, and may thus be employed to introduce chirality in the microporous material.