Chiral helical conformation

Table 3 Data relative to selected crystalline polymers for which only chiral crystalline phases, characterized by chiral helical conformations, are known... 

In 2006, Stephenson s group reported the involvement of a DKR process during an intramolecular asymmetric Heck reaction carried out in the presence of a BINAP-based Pd catalyst. It was shown that chiral helical conformations of the starting 2-iodoanilide interconverted through internal bond rotations, leading to the proposal of a DKR mechanism to account for the switch of the enantioselectivity (Scheme 2.61). 

A peptoid pentamer of five poro-substituted (S)-N-(l-phenylethyl)glycine monomers, which exhibits the characteristic a-helix-like CD spectrum described above, was further analyzed by 2D-NMR [42]. Although this pentamer has a dynamic structure and adopts a family of conformations in methanol solution, 50-60% of the population exists as a right-handed helical conformer, containing all cis-amide bonds (in agreement with modeling studies [3]), with about three residues per turn and a pitch of 6 A. Minor families of conformational isomers arise from cis/trans-amide bond isomerization. Since many peptoid sequences with chiral aromatic side chains share similar CD characteristics with this helical pentamer, the type of CD spectrum described above can be considered to be indicative of the formation of this class of peptoid helix in general. 

Peptoids based on a-chiral aliphatic side chains can form stable helices as well [43]. A crystal of a pentameric peptoid homooligomer composed of homochiral N-(1-cyclohexylethyl)glycine residues was grown by slow evaporation from methanol solution, and its structure determined by X-ray crystallographic methods. In the crystalline state, this pentamer adopts a helical conformation with repeating cis-... 

F. E.Chiral N-substituted glycines can form stable helical conformations. Fold. Design 1997, 2, 369-375. 

Lewis and Johnson compared the c.d. spectra of amylose and cyclomaltohexaose, and showed that amylose is helical in aqueous solution. Cyclomaltohexaose is chromophorically equivalent to amylose, and it is known to assume a pseudohelix having zero pitch, and thus, no helical chirality. The conformation of amylose is clearly different from that of cyclomaltohexaose, as their c.d. spectra are very different (see Fig. 9). The difference in conformation was considered to be a matter of helical chirality. To confirm this, these workers measured the c.d. spectrum of an amylose-1-butanol complex presumed to have the V-form of helical conformation with the 1-butanol complexed in the channel of the helix. The c.d. spectrum of the complex is identical to that of amylose in aqueous solution. 

The classic disilene 1 is unusual in that it exists in at least three crystalline modifications orange and yellow unsolvated forms and a yellow toluene solvate (Fig. 2). The orange polymorph has a helical conformation in which all of the mesityl substituents are twisted in the same direction thus molecules of 1 in this form are chiral.51 The toluene solvate has an unusual conformation in which two mesityl rings cis to each other are nearly coplanar with the Si=Si bond, while the other two cis mesityl groups are nearly orthogonal.41 The structure of the yellow unsolvated form is not yet known. Because of the flat potential surface for the Si=Si... 

Polyacetylenes are the most important class of synthetic polymers containing conjugated carbon-carbon double bonds. Some optically active monomers have been used with the following conclusions. Polymers of 1-alkynes having a branched side-chain assume in solution a helical conformation. A chiral side-chain induces a predominant screw sense in these helices. In particular, for alkyl branching, it has been shown that (S) monomers lead to a left-handed screw sense. 

Crystallization of polymers in chiral crystals, even in the case of achiral polymers, is quite frequent and strictly related to the occurrence of helical conformations of the chains. The crystallizable polymer consists of a regular sequence of a chemical repeating unit which can be chiral if it presents an asymmetric center or achiral. On the contrary, helical conformations assumed by the polymer chains in the crystalline state are intrinsically chiral, even though the chemical repeat is achiral. Three possible cases can be distinguished ... 

In contrast, the CD spectra of 50, 51, and 52 exhibit negative Cotton effects, as shown in Figure 4.36 for 50. This implies a helical conformation, but of the opposite preferential screw sense to 48 and 49, even though the enantiopure chiral moiety in all cases is the (5 )-2-methylbutyl group. Similarly, the Cotton effect is of greatest magnitude (negative) at low temperature and almost very much reduced at 80°C. 

These results allowed the proposal, at the beginning of the 1980s, of a different molecular model for cholesteric induction 65,66 This model is sketched in Figure 7.15 in the case when both nematic host and chiral guest have a biaryl structure. Nematic molecules exist in chiral enantiomorphic conformations of opposite helicity in fast interconversion. The chiral dopant has a well-defined helicity (M in Figure 7.15) and stabilizes the homochiral conformation of the solvent In this way, the M chirality is transferred from the dopant to the near molecule of the solvent and from this to the next near one and so on. This... 

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