Helical Organization in Foldable Aromatic Oligoamides by a Continuous Hydrogen-Bonding Network

Introduction of a continuous internal hydrogen-bonding network suppressed the conformational flexibility of a series of oligoaromatic foldamers with a lengthened backbone. The helical ordering over up to six aromatic repeating units was established in solution by a 2D NOESY study and in the solid state by an X-ray diffraction method. Computational molecular modeling further corroborates the experimentally observed helical propagation in this class of foldable molecular strands.