- Synthesis, structural investigations, hydrogen-deuterium exchange studies, and molecular modeling of conformationally stablilized aromatic oligoamides
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Biasing the conformational preferences of aromatic oligoamides by internally placing intramolecular hydrogen bonds has led to a series of stably folded molecular strands. This article presents the results from extensive solid-state, solution, and computational studies on these folding oligomers. Depending on its backbone length, an oligoamide adopts a crescent or helical conformation. Surprisingly, despite the highly repetitive nature of the backbone, the internally placed, otherwise very similar intramolecular hydrogen bonds showed significantly different stabilities as demonstrated by hydrogen-deuterium exchange data. It was also observed that the hydrogen-bonding strength can be tuned by adjusting the substituents attached to the exterior of the aromatic backbones. Examining the amide hydrogen-deuterium exchange rates of trimers revealed that a six-membered hydrogen bond nearing the ester end is the weakest among all the four intramolecular hydrogen bonds of a molecule. This observation was verified by ab initio quantum mechanical calculations at the level of B3LYP/6-31G. Such a "weak point" creates the "battle of the bulge" where backbone twisting is centered, which is consistently observed in the solid-state structures of the four trimer molecules studied. In the solid state, the oligomers assemble into interesting one-dimensional structures. A pronounced columnar packing of short oligomers (i.e., dimers, trimers, and tetramer) and channel-like, potentially ion-conducting stacks of longer oligomers (i.e., tetramer, pentamer, and hexamer) were observed.
- Yan, Yan,Qin, Bo,Ren, Changliang,Yip, Yeow Kwan,Ye, Ruijuan,Zeng, Huaqiang,Chen, Xiuying,Su, Haibin,Zhang, Dawei
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supporting information; experimental part
p. 5869 - 5879
(2010/07/13)
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- Helical organization in foldable aromatic oligoamides by a continuous hydrogen-bonding network
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Introduction of a continuous internal hydrogen-bonding network suppressed the conformational flexibility of a series of oligoaromatic foldamers with a lengthened backbone. The helical ordering over up to six aromatic repeating units was established in solution by a 2D NOESY study and in the solid state by an X-ray diffraction method. Computational molecular modeling further corroborates the experimentally observed helical propagation in this class of foldable molecular strands.
- Yan, Yan,Qin, Bo,Shu, Yingying,Chen, Xiuying,Yip, Yeow Kwan,Zhang, Dawei,Su, Haibin,Zeng, Huaqiang
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supporting information; experimental part
p. 1201 - 1204
(2009/08/07)
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