Remote Control of One-Handed Helicity in Polyacetylenes through Flexible Spacers in Water: Impact of the Spacer Length.

We report the unprecedented sergeants and soldiers (S&S)-type remote control of one-handed helicity in copolymers of chiral/achiral biphenylylacetylenes bearing amphiphilic oligo(ethylene glycol) (OEG) side chains. A small amount of chiral binaphthyl residues (≤10 mol %) introduced at the terminal of the achiral OEG spacers as many as 80 bonds away from the polymer backbones induced a complete one-handed helix in water through preferential intramolecular encapsulation of the binaphthyl groups within a cavity of the copolymers. A fully one-handed helix can be induced virtually independent of the OEG spacer length and concentrations. At a specific spacer length, however, its helix-sense was inverted. The copolymers also form an excess one-handed helix in organic solvents in an OEG spacer-length dependent manner, yet far from the polymer backbones. We show the superiority of the present covalent-bond driven S&S-type remote helicity control over the corresponding noncovalent helicity induction approach.