Helical Polymers: Optical Activity

许多天然存在的大分子和几种合成聚合物以其螺旋构象存在。合成聚合物与其天然类似物不同，其材料由等量的右旋和左旋螺旋的混合物组成，因此不具有旋光性。本研究的目的是合成和研究主要或仅在一个螺旋意义上的螺旋缩醛聚合物的性能。这些聚合物，像螺旋天然大分子，应该是光学活性的。该研究将寻求确定与螺旋度相关的基本大分子结构，检查各种侧基对螺旋的影响，并研究引发和传播导致产品螺旋度的各种聚合机理。这些类型的聚合物几乎是未知的，这项调查应进一步扩大我们的能力，以合成具有很大的结构精度的聚合物，并将其分子结构与观察到的散装材料的性能。

Many naturally occurring macromolecules, and several synthetic polymers, exist in their helical conformation. In synthetic polymers, unlike in their natural analogs, the material consists of a mixture of equal quantities of right.handed and left.handed helixes and, therefore, does not exhibit the property of optical activity. This research has as its aim to synthesize and study the properties of acetal polymers with helices predominantly or exclusively in one screw sense. These polymers, like helical natural macromolecules, should be optically active. The research will seek to identify the basic macromolecular structure related to helicity, examine the influence of various side groups on the helix, and study various polymerization mechanisms of initiation and propagation leading to helicity in the products. These types of polymers are virtually unknown, and this investigation should further extend our ability to synthesize polymers with great structural precision and to relate their molecular structure to observed properties of the bulk material.