Conformational cooperativity between helical domains of differing geometry in oligoamide–oligourea foldamer chimeras

Linking together an oligourea and an oligoamide foldamer gives rise to a conformationally well-defined structure, despite the different hydrogen-bonding patterns in the two domains, provided the oligomers are ligated amide C terminus to urea N terminus. A powerful screw-sense preference induced at the N terminus of the resulting chimeric structure provides evidence for cooperative conformational interactions within the ‘block co-foldamer’.