Hybrid Helical Polymer Nanochannels Constructed by Combining Aromatic Amide and Pyridine-Oxadiazole Structural Sequences.

An effective method is reported to synthesize aromatic helical polymer nanochannels by combining both the well-studied aromatic amide helical codons with pyridine-oxadiazole helical codons into helical structure sequences. With this strategy, a type of helical polymer nanochannel that shows structure-directed transmembrane transport functions is synthesized. Although such nanochannels show relatively weak selectivity for the transportation of alkali metal ions, accessible chemical mutation of helical structure sequences will provide a great chance for the design of desired channel property. The straightforward preparation of well-established pyridine-oxadiazole helical structure will significantly promote the synthesis of this kind of aromatic helical polymer nanochannels. With the development of aromatic amide foldamers, moreover, a number of "monomers" will be available for the preparation of helical polymer nanochannels.