title: Folding and aggregation of cationic oligo(aryl-triazole)s in aqueous solution.
abstract: Cationic aryl triazole oligomers have been synthesized through "click chemistry". The results show that cationic aryl triazole oligomers adopt a helical conformation in water or in a mixture of water and methanol, but prevail as a random-coiled conformation in methanol. Importantly, circular dichroism spectroscopy and dynamic light scattering experiments revealed that cationic oligomers aggregated intermolecularly to form higher order architectures with a helical sense opposite to that of the individual helix, which eventually led to the formation of aggregates with sizes in the range 100-500 nm. The aggregation of cationic oligomers was governed by the concentration and polarity of the environment. More interestingly, cationic foldamers were able to recognize chloride and fluoride anions in aqueous solution. The recognition consequently destabilized intermolecular aggregation.
authors: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing 100190, PR China.
authors: Ying
authors: Y
authors: Wang
authors: Fei
authors: F
authors: Li
authors: Yumiao
authors: Y
authors: Han
authors: Fuyi
authors: F
authors: Wang
authors: Hua
authors: H
authors: Jiang
mesh_terms: D002412:Cations / Q000737:chemistry; D002942:Circular Dichroism; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry; D011108:Polymers / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry*; D014230:Triazoles / Q000737:chemistry*; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D002412:Cations; D011108:Polymers; D014230:Triazoles; D014867:Water