Helical polymer as mimetic enzyme catalyzing asymmetric aldol reaction.

This Communication reports optically active helical substituted polyacetylenes which solely catalyzed asymmetric Aldol reaction between cyclohexanone and p-nitrobenzaldehyde; more importantly the helical structures are found to play crucial roles in the asymmetric catalysis, with a remarkable yield and ee (both up to 80%). A synergic effect is observed between the helical structures in the polymer main chains and the pendent prolinamide moieties for successfully catalyzing the asymmetric reaction. The role of the helical polymer backbones is further verified by tuning the relative helical structure content.