Helical Folding of Meta-Connected Aromatic Oligoureas.
Ting HuAlan L ConnorDaniel P MillerXiao WangQiang PeiRui LiuLan HeChong ZhengEva ZurekZhong-Lin LuBing GongPublished in: Organic letters (2017)
Aromatic oligoureas composed of meta-linked residues bearing phenolic ether side chains are synthesized. The basic N,N'-diarylurea units adopt a trans,trans intramolecularly H-bonded conformation that is further strengthened by additional intermolecular H-bonding. Such basic units, in combination with meta-linked benzene residues, result in stably folded helical oligoureas in the highly polar DMF with up to four turns and with a small cylindrical inner pore that would be difficult to acquire.