The odd-even effect in the main-chain chiral azopolyesters
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The odd-even effect in the main-chain chiral azopolyesters

Jie-Lai Jing
#
,
Yi-Shu Fu
#
,
Rui Zhao
,
Ye Liu
,
Xiao-Bing Lu
*
*Correspondence to: Xiao-Bing Lu, State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, Frontiers Science Center for Smart Materials, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, Liaoning, China. E-mail: xblu@dlut.edu.cn
Chiral Chem. 2026;2:CC_202622. 10.70401/cc.2026.0032
Received: April 17, 2026Accepted: June 11, 2026Published: June 17, 2026
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This manuscript is made available in its unedited form to allow early access to the reported findings. Further editing will be completed before final publication. As such, the content may include errors, and standard legal disclaimers are applicable.

Abstract

Precisely controlling the supramolecular chirality of polymer assemblies remains a persistent challenge. Herein, we report the synthesis of various main-chain chiral azopolyesters with side azobenzenegroups through the regioselctive ring-opening copolymerization of cyclic anhydrides and enantiopure epoxides with different spacer lengths between the chiral stereocenter and the azobenzene chromophore. The influences of both the spacer length and main-chain backbone structure on the supramolecular chirality of the resulting azopolyester assemblies are investigated in detail. The slight change in main-chain structure or/and the flexible spacer allows successful control over chiral consistency or chirality inversion in the assemblies, leading to two distinct odd–even effects. This effect is also reflected in the liquid crystalline properties of the azopolyesters. These findings provide a novel strategy for modulating supramolecular chirality in polymer assemblies.

Keywords

Azopolyester, supramolecular chirality, odd-even effect, epoxide, ring-opening copolymerization

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© The Author(s) 2026. This is an Open Access article licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

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Jing JL, Fu YS, Zhao R, Liu Y, Lu XB. The odd-even effect in the main-chain chiral azopolyesters. Chiral Chem. 2026;2:CC_202622. https://doi.org/10.70401/cc.2026.0032

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