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Updated: Sep 19, 2025

Self-assembling Morphologies Obtained from Helical Polycarbodiimide Copolymers and Their Triazole Derivatives
Published on: February 7, 2017
Chiral Self-Sorting of Flexible Covalent Organic Pillars for Adaptive Molecular Recognition
Shengnan Gao1, Min Zhang1, Yimin Zhang1
1Innovation Laboratory for Sciences and Technologies of Energy Materials of Fujian Province (IKKEM) and College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, 422 Siming South Road, Siming District, Xiamen, 361005, P.R. China.
Abstract:
Flexible covalent organic pillars (flex-COP-n) are introduced as a family of dual-open-ended nanotubular hosts constructed via dynamic imine condensation between pillararene-derived macrocyclic building blocks and conformationally mobile ─(CH2)n─ aliphatic linkers. These discrete molecular containers feature well-defined tubular channels capable of adaptive host-guest interactions. The self-assembly process exhibits a pronounced odd-even effect, yielding either enantiomeric or meso duplexes through distinct chiral self-sorting pathways. Host-guest interactions between flex-COP-4 and a series of α,ω-dibromoalkanes were systematically investigated using NMR spectroscopy and single-crystal X-ray crystallography. The resulting inclusion complexes span a continuum of binding modes-from relaxed encapsulation to strained, overpacked assemblies-governed by geometric complementarity and mutual host-guest deformation. These findings highlight the role of conformational flexibility in modulating molecular recognition under nanoscale confinement and establish flex-COP-n as a dynamic platform for mimicking adaptive features of biological receptors.
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