The incorporation of boron and nitrogen into polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) has become an established approach to modify their physical and optoelectronic properties.^[1,2] These compounds with excellent characteristics, e.g. luminescence intensity or charge transfer properties, have been intensively investigated in bioimaging, organic electronics and photovoltaics.^[3] Yet, the most noticeable achievements have been made in the field of achiral compounds, leaving an unexplored niche for chiral boron-doped materials. It is noteworthy that less than a decade ago, there were only a handful of boron-containing helicenes.^[4] The lack of effective and reliable synthetic protocols limited their structural diversity, while other helicenes remained inaccessible. Recognizing the enormous potential of chiral boron-containing compounds, we chose their synthesis, study of their properties and application of these attractive compounds as our main research objective. Our motivation was to exploit their properties arising from their chirality, such as circularly polarized (CP) luminescence and packing arrangement, in CP-OLEDs, transistor devices, and bioimaging. Over the last few years, we have systematically expanded the family of boron-doped chiral materials. Using our modular approach and new synthetic methods, we were able to prepare a variety of boron helicenes, including single helicenes, multihelicenes, boron-containing photoswitches, and boron-centered spiro compounds.^[5-10]

In this talk, we will present selected boron-containing chiral compounds, i.e. π-extended helicenes containing multiple chiral axes, derived from dibenzo[g,p]chrysene derivatives with substitution patterns that are difficult to achieve, together with the key parameters that define their performance as functional chiral materials. We will also discuss the preparation of unique azaborathiahelicenes and boron-centered spiro compounds via our new protocols that proved critical in the synthesis of boron-containing photoresponsive materials.

References:

[1] von Grotthuss, A. John, T. Kaese, M. Wagner, Asian J. Org. Chem. 2018, 7, 37. [2] P. T. Geppert, D. Volland, K. Szkodzińska, A. Nowak-Król, Org. Mater. 2025, DOI: 10.1055/a-2603-4217. [3] S. K. Mellerup, S. Wang, Trends Chem. 2019, 1, 77. [4] A. Nowak-Król, P. T. Geppert, K. R. Naveen, Chem. Sci. 2024, 15, 7408. [5] J. Full, S. P. Panchal, J. Götz, A.-M. Krause, A. Nowak-Król, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2021, 60, 4350. [6] F. Full, Q. Wölflick, K. Radacki, H. Braunschweig, A. Nowak-Król, Chem. Eur. J. 2022, 28, e202202280. [7] F. Full, M. J. Wildervanck, D. Volland, A. Nowak-Król, Synlett 2023, 34, 477. [8] D. Volland, J. Niedens, P. T. Geppert, M. J. Wildervanck, F. Full, A. Nowak-Król, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2023, 62, e202304291. [9] J. Full, M. J. Wildervanck, C. Dillmann, S. P. Panchal, D. Volland, F. Full, K. Meerholz, A. Nowak-Król, Chem. Eur. J. 2023, 29, e202302808. [10] F. Full, A. Artigas, K. Wiegand, D. Volland,

Agnieszka Nowak-Król graduated with honors from the Rzeszów University of Technology in Poland, where she worked with Dr. Grażyna Groszek on the synthesis of bioactive compounds. For her master’s thesis, she was awarded the distinction for Janina Janikowa Award of the Polish Chemical Society for the best MSc thesis in chemistry in Poland in 2008. She earned her doctorate at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw in 2013 with Prof. Daniel Gryko. Her research focused on the design and synthesis of porphyrinoids (porphyrins and corroles) with large two-photon absorption cross-section and appropriate secondary properties, such as liquidity at room temperature or liquid crystallinity. During her PhD thesis, she was the PI of two grants, one funded by the Foundation for Polish Science (Ventures Programme) and another one by the National Science Center. She then continued her career as an Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow and a subgroup leader with Prof. Frank Würthner at the Institute of Organic Chemistry of the University of Würzburg in Germany. In the Würthner group, she explored the chemistry and properties of perylene bisimide dyes and acceptor-donor-acceptor materials for organic electronics and photovoltaics, as well as fundamental processes in covalently linked and supramolecular dye architectures. In 2016, she started her independent career as a group leader at the Center for Nanosystems Chemistry in Würzburg. In 2019, she received the prestigious Emmy-Noether grant (€1.87 million, equivalent of the ERC Starting Grant) from the German Research Foundation to establish her independent research group. In 2019, she received a call for a tenure-track position from the University of Bonn, which she declined, and in 2020, she accepted a tenure-track junior professor position at the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry and the Institute for Sustainable Chemistry & Catalysis with Boron of the University of Würzburg. She was promoted to professor in 2024. Agnieszka is the recipient of several awards and honors, including the Arnold Sommerfeld Prize of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the Hector Research Career Development Award of the Hector Fellow Academy, the Thieme Chemistry Journals Award, the Bürgenstock JSP Fellowship of the Swiss Chemical Society, the Wojciech Swietoslawski Award, and the Zonta Award. She is a member of the Societas Humboldtiana Polonorum, Soltech, the Polish Chemical Society, and the German Chemical Society, and a member of the Early Career Advisory Board of Organic Chemistry Frontiers. Her research lies at the interface of organic, inorganic and materials chemistry. Her current activities focus on the development of helically chiral π-conjugated organoboron compounds, boron-containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, photoswitches, helicenes containing other main group elements and transition metals and their applications in organic electronics and bioimaging. She is currently a visiting professor at the Warsaw University of Technology.