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Updated: Jul 15, 2026

Self-assembling Morphologies Obtained from Helical Polycarbodiimide Copolymers and Their Triazole Derivatives
Published on: February 7, 2017
Metal-induced supramolecular chirality in optically active polymers of oxazoline-substituted N-phenylmaleimides
Xiujuan Xi1, Liming Jiang, Weilin Sun
1Key Laboratory of Macromolecule Synthesis and Functionalization, Ministry of Education, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
Polymerization of N-phenylmaleimide derivatives bearing a chiral oxazoline substituent at ortho-position on the phenyl group (namely, N-[o-(4,5-dihydro-1,3-oxazol-2-yl)phenyl]maleimides, OPMI) was carried out with diethylzinc (Et2Zn) as an initiator. The resulting polymers exhibited a quite high specific rotation and a unique split-type circular dichroism. Furthermore, an induced Cotton effect was observed in the pi-pi* transition region of the chromophores upon complexation of these polymers with copper(II) salt in tetrahydrofuran solution, indicating the formation of chiral supramolecular aggregates. The induced supramolecular chirality was found to be dependent on the absolute configuration of monomer units, that is, the polymers with (R)-configurational oxazolinyl chromophores tended to form chiral aggregates with levorotatory handedness, while polymers obtained from the (S)-monomer offered dextrogyrate one upon the addition of Cu(II) salt.
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