Helix-sense-selective polymerization of achiral substituted acetylene in chiral micelles for preparing optically active polymer nanoparticles: Effects of chiral emulsifiers

This paper reports helix-sense-selective polymerizations (HSSPs) of achiral acetylene monomer performed in chiral micelles , by which optically active helical polymer emulsions were directly obtained. The chiral micelles were constructed by chiral emulsifiers , in which achiral acetylene underwent HSSPs in the presence of catalyst [(nbd)RhCl] 2 . The chiral emulsifiers possessed different alkyl chain lengths and different amino acid groups, and their effects on HSSPs were investigated in detail. The obtained polymer emulsions were characterized by TEM , circular dichroism and UV–vis absorption spectroscopy techniques . It is demonstrated that the polymer chains constructing the emulsions adopted helical structures of predominantly one-handed screw sense, from which the emulsions exhibited remarkable optical activity.