Exciting Novel Polyaspartates: Design, Synthesis, and Photo-Responsive Behavior in Solution and Lyotropic Liquid Crystalline Phase Upon Irradiation with Visible Light.

ABSTRACT: Many polypeptides form stable, helical secondary structures enabling the formation of lyotropic liquid crystalline (LLC) phases. Contrary to the well-studied polyglutamate, their counterparts based on polyaspartates exhibit a much lower helix inversion barrier. Therefore, the helix sense is not solely dictated by the chirality of the amino acid used, but additionally by the nature and conformation of the polymer sidechain. In this work, polymers responsive to irradiation with visible light are designed achieving conformational transitions from helix-to-coil and helix-to-helix. The synthesis and the application as LLC mesogens of several (co-)polyaspartates bearing ortho-fluorinated azobenzene (FAB) as a photochromic group are presented. Many of the obtained polymers undergo changes in thei

SUBMITTER: Hossain R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11583294 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature