CPL-active water-soluble aromatic oligoamide foldamers.

Area of Science:

• Supramolecular Chemistry
• Organic Chemistry
• Materials Science

Background:

• Foldamers are synthetic oligomers mimicking protein structures.
• Water-soluble foldamers are crucial for biological and environmental applications.
• Chiroptical properties are essential for molecular recognition and sensing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To synthesize enantiopure, water-soluble quinoline-based foldamers.
• To investigate their optical and chiroptical characteristics in aqueous media.
• To explore structure-property relationships for optoelectronic modulation.

Main Methods:

• Synthesis of hexameric quinoline foldamers with cationic/anionic chains.
• Functionalization with electron-donating moieties.
• Spectroscopic analysis of electronic circular dichroism (ECD) and circularly-polarized luminescence (CPL).

Main Results:

• Achieved strong ECD and CPL in water.
• Dissymmetry factors up to 2 × 10^-2 (absorption) and 5 × 10^-3 (emission).
• Properties were independent of solubilizing chains and functional groups.

Conclusions:

• Demonstrated the potential of quinoline foldamers as water-soluble chiroptical materials.
• Highlighted opportunities for developing artificial systems for chirality-associated applications in aqueous media.
• Opened new avenues for designing functional nanomaterials for biological and sensing applications.