Poly(phenylacetylene) Amines: A General Route to Water-Soluble Helical Polyamines

This is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Chemistry of Materials, Copyright © 2018 American Chemical Society after peer review and technical edityng by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.chemmater.8b03238Polyphenylacetylenes bearing prim- and secamine groups are barely known due to their poisoning activity towards the polymerization catalyst. Herein we prepare 11 different amino polymers in high yields by direct polymerization of their corresponding ammonium salts in water using [Rh(cod)2] +BF4- as catalyst. They are stable, water soluble, and show a helical structure that responds to external stimuli (polarity, pH and metal ions) acting on the pendants. The location of the amino group in the pendant is shown to be critical for the helical response to protonationFinancial support from MINECO (CTQ2014-61470-EXP, CTQ2015-70519-P), Xunta de Galicia (GRC2014/040, Centro singular de investigación de Galicia accreditation 2016- 2019, ED431G/09) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is gratefully acknowledged. E. S. P. is grateful to MINECO for a FPU predoctoral fellowshipS