Photoreactivity and Novel Designs in Smart Chiral Materials

Abstract

Helical polymers, covalent and supramolecular, have attracted the attention of the scientific community for the relation structure/function found in helical biomacromolecules such as peptides, proteins, DNA. Inspired by these works, in this thesis photochemical properties of several synthetic helical polymers from poly(phenylacetylene)s were studied, and the results were applied to elucidate its secondary structure. Furthermore, new helical systems, covalent and supramolecular were prepared and studied, resulting in novel multi-responsive and multi-helical materials.