New molecular design of conjugated polymer that possess high sensitivity to vapour and self-recovering property against pressure is proposed. We synthesised a rod-rod diblock copolymer, poly(3-((3S)-3,7-dimethyl-octyl)-thiophene)-block-poly(4-octyl phenylisocyanide) (PTh- b -PPI), composed of a π-conjugated polymer and a rod-type helical coiled polymer. Introduction of PPI block in the block copolymer architecture enabled PTh- b -PPI film to exhibit solid-to-liquid crystal phase transition by exposure to chloroform vapour, accompanied with colour change (purple-to-yellow), which is the first report on a new phenomenon of “vapour-induced liquid crystallinity”. In addition, PTh- b -PPI film showed colour change (purple-to-vermillion) during mechanical shearing, and spontaneously recovered under ambient conditions. We concluded that rod-type helical coiled polymer PPI block performs crucial roles as intrinsically vapour-induced liquid crystallinity and self-reassembling property in the architecture of PTh- b -PPI.

Highlights-Synthesis and characterization of a series of polyisocyanides.-Polymerization in asymmetric liquid crystal.-Preparation of chiroptically active polyisocyanides.-Helical sense controllable polymerization.-In situ ESR spectra of polyisocyanides.

Supramolecular copolymerizations offer attractive options to introduce structural and functional diversity in supramolecular polymer materials. Yet, general principles and structure-property relationships for rational comonomer design remain lacking. Here, we report...

An enantiomeric pair of chiral inducers with double chiral carbons was synthesized by a simple three-step reaction strategy. The process affords the chiral inducers with good yield, high enantiomeric excess, and good compatibility with nematic liquid crystal. Addition of a small amount of the chiral inducers thus synthesized in this study produced cholesteric architecture. Electrochemical polymerization in the asymmetric liquid crystal environment affords chiroptically active polymers as atropisomers. The electrochemical polymerization under magnetic field of 4 T affords polymer films with linear dichroism. The polymers exhibit a significant color change from dark-green in the oxidized state to light-green in the reduced state. The redox process of the polymer films in an electrolyte provides a reversible absorption, circular dichroism, and linear dichroism spectral changes.