Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 30, 2025

Self-assembling Morphologies Obtained from Helical Polycarbodiimide Copolymers and Their Triazole Derivatives
Published on: February 7, 2017
Homochiral π-Rich Covalent Organic Frameworks Enabled Chirality Imprinting in Conjugated Polymers: Confined
Xiaofeng Zhang1, Xinfa Chen1, Shiguo Fu1
1School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Frontiers Science Center for Transformative Molecules and State Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composites, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China.
Abstract:
Optically active π-conjugated polymers (OACPs) have garnered increasing research interest for their resemblance to biological helices and intriguing chirality-related functions. Traditional methods for synthesizing involve decorating achiral conjugated polymer architectures with enantiopure side substituents through complex organic synthesis. Here, we report a new approach: the templated synthesis of unsubstituted OACPs via supramolecularly confined polymerizations of achiral monomers within nanopores of 2D or 3D chiral covalent organic frameworks (CCOFs). We show that the chiral π-rich nanospaces facilitate the in situ enantiospecific polymerization and self-propagation, akin to nonenzymatic polymerase chain reaction (PCR) system, resulting in chiral imprinting. The stacked polymer chains are kinetically inert enough to memorize the chiral information after liberating from CCOFs, and even after treatment at temperature up to 200 °C. The isolated OACPs demonstrate robust enantiodiscrimination, achieving up to 85 % ee in separating racemic amino acids. This underscores the potential of utilizing CCOFs as templates for supramolecularly imprinting optical activity into CPs, paving the way for synthetic evolution and advanced functional exploration of OACPs.
More Related Videos
08:42Microfluidic-based Synthesis of Covalent Organic Frameworks COFs: A Tool for Continuous Production of COF Fibers and Direct Printing on a Surface
Published on: July 10, 2017
08:25Development of Heterogeneous Enantioselective Catalysts using Chiral Metal-Organic Frameworks MOFs
Published on: January 17, 2020
Related Concept Videos
Prochirality
Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers
Chirality
Chiral objects exhibit a sense of handedness when they interact with another chiral object. For example, our left foot can only fit in the left shoe and not in the right shoe. Achiral objects — objects that have...
Polymer Classification: Stereospecificity
Stereoisomerism of Cyclic Compounds
Olefin Metathesis Polymerization: Ring-Opening Metathesis Polymerization (ROMP)