Shape-persistent aromatic amide oligomers: new tools for supramolecular chemistry.

With an increasing number of folding and helical structures available, chemists have begun to pay greater attention to the functions of this family of structurally unique oligomers. Hydrogen-bonding-mediated aromatic oligoamide foldamers have the features of good structural predictability, synthetic facility, and structural modification, which make them very promising as scaffolds or platforms for supramolecular chemistry. Recent advances in the applications of this class of shape-persistent oligomers in the promoted synthesis of macrocycles, design of new nonring receptors, supramolecular self-assembly, molecular encapsulation, and reaction acceleration, are highlighted in this Focus Review.