Aromatic Oligoamide Foldamers: A Paradigm for Structure - Property Relationship

Aromatic oligoamide foldamers whose helical structures were stabilized by intramolecular hydrogen bindings between consecutive units not only can mimic the secondary or tertiary structures of its natural counterparts but also provide alternative approaches to study the properties of biopolymers in artificial systems. Aromatic oligoamide foldamers are sequence-specific oligomers as demonstrated in peptides and DNA, while variation of orientation and size of aromatic monomers and lengths of oligomers can generate many foldamers with desirable structures and in turn lead to different properties. In this article, we illustrate the structure-property relationships of aromatic oligoamide foldamers reported by us and collaborators.