A Thermal and Solvocontrollable Cylindrical Nanoshutter Based on a Single Screw‐Sense Helical Polyguanidine

Abstract

Helix-sense-selective polymerization of an achiral carbodiimide using a chiral titanium catalyst yields the regioregular, stereoregular poly[N-(1-anthryl)-N′-n-octadecylguanidine] (poly-1). A reversible thermo- and solvent-driven switching phenomena is exhibited by poly-1 (see scheme) in electronic circular dichroism and optical rotation studies. Furthermore, the helicity of poly-1 is assigned and the mechanism of this switching process is elucidated.