Directing the Self‐Assembly of Aromatic Foldamer Helices using Acridine Appendages and Metal Coordination

Folded molecules provide complex interaction interfaces amenable to sophisticated self‐assembly motifs. Because of their high conformational stability, aromatic foldamers constitute suitable candidates for the rational elaboration of self‐assembled architectures. Several multiturn helical aromatic oligoamides have been synthesized that possess arrays of acridine appendages pointing in one or two directions. The acridine units were shown to direct self‐assembly in the solid state via aromatic stacking leading to recurrent helix‐helix association patterns under the form of discrete dimers or extended arrays. In the presence of Pd(II), metal coordination of the acridine units overwhelms other forces and generates new metal‐mediated multihelical self‐assemblies, including macrocycles. These observations demonstrate simple access to different types of foldamer‐containing architectures, ranging from discrete objects to 1D and, by extension, 2D and 3D arrays.