A liquid crystalline homopolymer that has photoisomerizable methoxyazobenzene groups in the side chain has been synthesized and characterized. Thin films of the nematic glassy phase of this polymer have been processed in order to study the absorption spectra and the vibrational and electronic circular dichroism responses by irradiation with 488 nm circularly polarized light (CPL). Selective reflection of visible light demonstrates that the irradiation of this glassy nematic azopolymer induces a helix as a consequence of the chiral arrangement of the azobenzene units. Moreover, a wedge cell with an aligning layer for planar orientation was filled with the polymer with the aim of investigating the change in the macroscopic optical properties and optical textures of the azopolymer on irradiation with CPL. The transfer of chirality from CPL to azopolymer through chiral conformations is proposed as a model for explaining the supramolecular chirality.

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The 2‐(2′‐furyl)‐1H‐imidazole (1) has been prepared and characterized using infrared, Raman, and multidimensional nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopies. Two conformations of this species obtained by rotation of 180°, approximately, around the CC inter‐ring bond are detected. Likewise, the crystal and molecular structure of 1 has been analyzed by X‐ray diffraction methods and it evidenced that both conformations are present in the lattice with equal occupancy and linked in alternate way to the NH‐‐‐N bonded polymeric chains along the crystal [101] direction. Theoretical calculations have been carried out by employing the density functional theory (DFT)/B3LYP method, in order to optimize the geometry in gas phase of both conformers and to support the assignments of the vibrational bands of 1 to their normal modes. For a complete assignment of the compound, DFT calculations were combined with Pulay's SQMFF methodology in order to fit the theoretical frequency values to the experimental one. The nuclear magnetic resonance spectrum observed for 1 is successfully compared with the calculated chemicals shifts at B3LYP/6‐311++G** level of theory for the two conformers. Furthermore, natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis and topological (AIM) calculations for an oligomer, containing three alternated units of the NH‐‐‐N bonded chain found in the crystal, reveals the characteristics of the hydrogen bonds present in the polymeric structure. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.