Allostery-Mimicking Self-assembly of Helical Poly(phenylacetylene) Block Copolymers and the Chirality Transfer

Allostery can regulate protein self-assembly which further affects biological activities, and achieving precise control over the chiral suprastructures during self-assembly remains challenging. Herein, to mimic the allosterical nature of proteins, the poly(phenylacetylene) block copolymers PPA-b-PsmNap with the dynamic helical backbone were synthesized to investigate their conformational-transition-induced self-assembly. As the helical conformation of the block PsmNap spontaneously transforms from cis-transiod to cis-cisoid, the decreasing solubility of PsmNap blocks in THF induced self-assembly of PPA-b-PsmNap. The self-assembly structures of copolymers can sequentially evolve from vesicles to nanobelts to helical strands during the process of conformation transformation. The screw sense of final helical strands was strictly correlated to the helicity of the block PsmNap. This is helpful to understand the mechanism of allostery-modulated self-assembly.