Sequential self-catalytic reactions in the formation of hetero-double-helix and their self-assembled gels by pseudoenantiomer mixtures of ethynylhelicene oligomers.

A 1:1 mixture of pseudoenantiomer ethynylhelicene (P)-pentamer and (M)-tetramer in toluene formed hetero-double-helix and their self-assembled gels. Kinetic analysis under isothermal conditions showed a complex nonlinear nature with regard to temperature changes. At 60°C, sigmoidal kinetics were observed, which disappeared after seeding with the self-assembled gels. These findings indicate the involvement of self-catalytic reaction I, in which a hetero-double-helix catalyzes the reaction to form a hetero-double-helix from random-coils. At 20°C, stairwise biphasic kinetics were observed, which disappeared after seeding. This phenomenon was explained by the involvement of two reactions with sigmoidal kinetics, namely, the formation of self-assembled gel I from hetero-double-helix by self-catalytic reaction II and the formation of self-assembled gel II by self-catalytic reaction III. Constant-rate temperature change experiments between 90 and 5°C showed nonsigmoidal thermal hysteresis in accordance with the involvement of sequential self-catalytic reactions with different reaction rates.