Helical folding of conjugated oligo(phenyleneethynylene): chain-length dependence, solvent effects, and...

As a representative folding system that features a conjugated backbone, a series of monodispersed (o-phenyleneethynylene)-alt-(p-phenyleneethynylene) (PE) oligomers of varied chain length and different side chains were studied. Molecules with the same backbone but different side-chain structures were shown to exhibit similar helical conformations in respectively suitable solvents. Specifically, oligomers with dodecyloxy side chains folded into the helical structure in apolar aliphatic solvents, whereas an analogous oligomer with tri(ethylene glycol) (Tg) side chains adopted the same conformation in polar solvents. The fact that the oligomers with the same backbone manifested a similar folded conformation independent of side chains and the nature of the solvent confirmed the concept that the driving force for folding was the intramolecular aromatic stacking and solvophobic interactions. Although all were capable of inducing folding, different solvents were shown to bestow slightly varied folding stability. The chain-length dependence study revealed a nonlinear correlation between the folding stability with backbone chain length. A critical size of approximately 10 PE units was identified for the system, beyond which folding occurred. This observation corroborated the helical nature of the folded structure. Remarkably, based on the absorption and emission spectra, the effective conjugation length of the system extended more effectively under the folded state than under random conformations. Moreover, as evidenced by the optical spectra and dynamic light-scattering studies, intermolecular association took place among the helical oligomers with Tg side chains in aqueous solution. The demonstrated ability of such a conjugated foldamer in self-assembling into hierarchical supramolecular structures promises application potential for the system.