Double‐Helical Nanostructures with Controllable Handedness in Bulk Diblock Copolymers

Abstract

Double-helical nanostructures with controllable handedness in bulk materials is of high interest in science and technology for the design and fabrication of new materials, in particular metamaterials,w hichm imic their natural homologues or even showsuperior properties.Herein, we report the fabrication of double-helical structures with controlled handedness through the self-assembly of an achiral diblock copolymer doped with d-and l-tartaric acid (TA). The helices showed clear handedness dependence on the chirality of the TA.The chiral arrangement of different achiral tectonic units, such as nanoparticles and organic molecules,w as confirmed using this helical structure as at emplate.T he double-helical structure will provide new knowledge for understanding the function of helices,a nd will enable the application of these systems as chiroptical materials.Supportinginformation and the ORCID identification number(s) for the author(s) of this article can be found under: https://doi.

Single Helix Self-Assembled by Frustrated ABC2 Branched Terpolymers

“…The regulation of helical structures mainly consists in controlling the handedness and the number of helices. Usually, the control of helical handedness in achiral molecular systems needs an external chiral agent, i.e., chiral small molecules 13,40 or chiral potential fields. 41,42 In contrast, the number of helices can be tuned by the characteristic parameters of helix-forming block copolymer systems, such as the pore size in the nanoporeconfined block copolymers, or the interaction parameters and compositions of the ABC triblock copolymer.…”

Hierarchical Microphase Behaviors of Chiral Block Copolymers under Kinetic and Thermodynamic Control

“…[6][7][8] Block copolymers (BCPs) composed of helical segments (denoted as chiral block copolymers, BCPs*) are one of the ideal candidates for the bottom-up self-assembly, bringing various complicated chiral superstructures. [9][10][11][12] Mechanism insights indicate that the formation of chiral surperstructures are kinetically-dependent and affected by the complex interplays among multiple interactions including chirality, hydrophibic interaction, and crystallization; however, the details of which are still inadequately understood. [13][14][15] Physiological processes and biological reactions prefer to carry out in nanoconfinement space where the spatial confinement plays significant roles in the proceeding of sophisticated biochemical reactions.…”

Reversal of handedness of ionic liquid-based chiral block copolymers via self-assembly in solution and bulk phase

“…12,[23][24][25] Recent developments indicate that chirality can also be induced via attachment of chiral auxiliaries to achiral block copolymers. [26][27][28][29][30] Yet, no effective amplification of chirality occurred due to the high flexibility of non-conjugated polymer backbones. 26 Hence, in order to enhance the chirality effects, a high degree of added dopant may be required.…”