Synthesis and nontrivial optical resolution of a helicene-like dication, helquat 1, has been accomplished. Starting with gram scale of the racemic helquat 1 sample, Dutch Resolution using family of 3 tartrate anions was key to achieve successful separation of M and P helical enantiomers of 1.
Hundreds of milligrams of each enantiomer of this configurationally stable C-2-symmetric helquat have been obtained. Racemization barrier of 1 has been determined.
To our knowledge this is the first report on Dutch Resolution performed with a helicene-like compound. Moreover, there are no literature precedents for Dutch Resolution of chiral quaternary ammonium cations.