Chiral mesoporous materials based on the self-assembly

Ordered mesoporous materials with various structures are synthesized based on the self-assembly of surfactant and inorganic precursors and covered by several excellent reviews. However, less work has been directed to chiral structured mesoporous materials, although these could have wide-ranging applications on the manufacturing of enantio-pure chemicals and pharmaceuticals as catalysts and separation media with both shape selectivity and enantioselectivity. This short review will address the synthesis of chiral mesoporous materials by chiral organic compounds templating route, covering single and 2-dimensional ordered chiral channel mesoporous materials. Non-porous helical fiber, atomic-scale enantio-morphism and zeolite-like materials with three-dimensional helical pores are beyond the scope of this paper.