Núñez Martínez, ManuelDíaz Arias, Sandra NataliaBergueiro Álvarez, JuliánQuiñoá Cabana, EmilioRiguera Vega, RicardoFreire Iribarne, Félix Manuel2022-08-182022-08-182021Macromol. Rapid Commun. 2022, 43, 2100616. https://doi.org/10.1002/marc.202100616http://hdl.handle.net/10347/29087The helical sense control of dynamic helical polymers such as poly(phenylacetylene)s (PPAs) is greatly affected when they are conjugated to AuNPs through a strong thiol-Au connection, which restricts conformational changes at the polymer. Thus, the classical thiol-MNP bonds must be replaced by weaker ones, such as supramolecular amide–Au interactions. A straightforward preparation of the PPA–Au nanocomposite by reduction of a preformed PPA–Au3+ complex cannot be used due to a redox reaction between the two components of the complex which degrades the polymer. To avoid the interaction between the PPA and the Au3+ ions before the reduction takes place, the metal ions are added to the polymer solution capped as a TOAB complex, which keeps the PPA stable due to the lack of PPA–Au3+ interactions. Ulterior reduction of the Au3+ ions by NaBH4 affords the desired nanocomposite, where the AuNPs are stabilized by supramolecular anilide–AuNPs interactions. By using this approach, 3.7 nm gold nanoparticles are generated and aligned along the polymer chain with a regular distance between particles of 6 nm that corresponds to two helical pitches. These nanocomposites show stimuli-responsive properties and are also able to form macroscopically chiral nanospheres with tunable sizeeng© 2021 The Authors. Macromolecular Rapid Communications published by Wiley-VCH GmbH. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are madehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ChiralityGold nanoparticlesHelical polymersNanocompositesjournal article10.1002/marc.2021006161521-3927open access