Abstract
Helical structure is a sophisticated ubiquitous motif found in nature, in artificial polymers, and in supramolecular assemblies from microscopic to macroscopic points of view. Significant progress has been made in the synthesis and structural elucidation of helical polymers, nevertheless, a new direction for helical polymeric materials, is how to design smart systems with controllable helical chirality, and further use them to develop chiral functional materials and promote their applications in biology, biochemistry, medicine, and nanotechnology fields. This review summarizes the recent progress in the development of high-performance systems with tunable helical chirality on receiving external stimuli and discusses advances in their applications as drug delivery vesicles, sensors, molecular switches, and liquid crystals. Challenges and opportunities in this emerging area are also presented in the conclusion.
Highlights
Chirality represents an important biochemical signature of life, which exists widely in nature and plays fundamental but critical roles in the bioactivities of biomolecules and a wide diversity of biochemical reactions [1]
We introduce the applications of helicity controllable systems in drug delivery, imaging, asymmetric catalysis, molecular machines, liquid crystal (LC) materials
Various devices have been developed and and havehave found a wide structure, various artificial artificialchiral chiralmaterials materialsand and devices have been developed found a range of applications in drug delivery, imaging, biosensors, asymmetric catalysis, molecular wide range of applications in drug delivery, imaging, biosensors, asymmetric catalysis, molecular switches, responsive responsive liquid liquid crystal crystal materials, materials, and and other other related related areas
Summary
Chirality represents an important biochemical signature of life, which exists widely in nature and plays fundamental but critical roles in the bioactivities of biomolecules and a wide diversity of biochemical reactions [1]. The chiral inversion of this helical architecture between the left- and right-handed supercoiled form happens during a bi-stable mechanical switch of bacteria, in which the corresponding “swimming” pattern alternates between running and tumbling [12] Inspired by these highly sophisticated biological helices and corresponding helical chirality inversion events, a big challenge and a new direction for chemical and material science, is how to design artificial systems with controllable helical sense and further use them to mimic natural systems, and develop chiral functional devices as well as promote their applications in biochemistry and nanotechnology fields. Challenges and opportunities in this emerging area are presented in the conclusion
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