Polyisocyanates, long studied as theoretical models for wormlike chains in dilute solution and liquid crystals, differ from their biological helical analogs in the absence of a pre-determined helical sense. These polymers have an unusual sensitivity to chiral effects that arises from a structure in which alternating right- and left-handed long helical blocks are separated by infrequent and mobile helical reversals. Statistical thermodynamic methods yield an exact description of the polymer and the cooperative nature of its chiral properties. Minute energies that favor one of the helical senses drive easily measurable conformational changes, even though such energies may be extremely difficult to calculate from structural theory. In addition, the chiral nature of the polymer can be used to test theoretical ideas concerned with cholesteric liquid crystals, one of which solves the problem of assigning the helical sense.

Cooperative phenomena, described by one-dimensional statistical physical methods, are observed between the enantiomeric characteristics of monomeric materials and the polymers they produce. The effect of minute energies associated with this amplified chirality, although currently not interpretable, can be easily measured. Nonlinear relationships between enantiomeric excess or enantiomeric content and polymer properties may offer the possibility of developing chiral catalysts and chiral chromatographic materials in which the burden of large enantiomeric excess or content may be considerably alleviated. New approaches to information and sensor technology may become possible.

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ABSTRACT:In the family of optically active synthetic polymers, optically active polysilanes, which comprise a helical main chain of silicon-silicon single bonds and chiral and/or achiral side groups, exhibit unique absorption, circular dichroism, and fluorescence spectra around 300-400 nm due to σ-conjugation. Since the first brief report of optically active polysilane synthesis in 1992, the field has now widened to include various homo-and copolymers of optically active poly(dialkylsilane)s, poly(dialkoxysilane)s, poly[alkyl(aryl)silane]s, and poly(diarylsilane)s. This review comprehensively covers work on (i) the relationship between side chain structure, (ii) local structure-global shape relationship, (iii) (chir)optical properties, (iv) (semi)quantitative population analysis of right-and left-handed helices based on Kuhn's dissymmetry ratio, (v) several helical cooperativity effects, (vi) molecular imaging, (vii) inversion of screw-sense, (viii) chiroptical switch and memory, (ix) transfer and amplification of molecular chirality to aggregates, (x) cholesteric liquid crystallinity, (xi) helical supramolecular structures, and (xii) latent helicity, as consequences of side group internal interactions and other external stimuli. Such knowledge and understanding may stimulate optically active polymer research in the realm of nanomaterial science and nanotechnology at the sub-nm level as well as traditional polymer science, and may advance these polymers to new functional nanomaterials and thence to the realization of nanodevices in the future.

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A statistical mechanical theory is presented for liquid-crystalline polymer solutions, where the liquid-crystalline polymer is regarded as a wormlike spherocylinder interacting by the hard-core repulsion and a soft (attractive or electrostatic) interaction with other spherocylinders. The theory is based on the following two assumptions: (1) the intramolecular excluded volume effect is not effective and (2) the interaction between pair oi'spherocylinders can be treated by the "single contact approximation".These assumptions are relevant to a polymer with a stiff backbone and not very long contour length.The theory is used to predict thermodynamic and spatial properties of isotropic solutions and also isotropic-liquid crystal phase equilibrium behavior. The predicted solution properties and phase behavior are favorably compared with experimental results for some selected stiff-chain liquid-crystalline polymers.