Trefoil polymers from a knotted synthon.

Authors

Chenchen Du, Zhi Chen, Changqing Xu, Zhanhu Sun, Zhi-Hui Zhang, Xian-Guang Liu, Binhua Chen, Chenxin Zhang, Zhikai Li, Yin Rao, Deao Xu, Ningjin Zhang, Qiaowei Li, Heng Wang, Hai Qian, Liang Dai, Xiaopeng Li, David A Leigh, Liang Zhang

Published in

Nature chemistry. Jun 29, 2026. Epub Jun 29, 2026.

Abstract

Precise control over the presence and position of knots in polymers remains a long-standing synthetic challenge, with theory indicating broad implications for properties and function. Here we report on a topological synthon approach-extension and macrocyclization of an overhand knot-that enables the high yielding synthesis of closed-loop trefoiled polymers with narrow polydispersity and tunable topological parameters. From the same set of building blocks we prepared linear, cyclic and trefoiled topoisomers of matched chemical composition, allowing topology-property relationships to be examined directly. Low-temperature ultrahigh-vacuum scanning tunnelling microscopy resolved three conformers of trefoiled polystyrene, with high-, medium- and low-symmetry forms whose populations depend on chain length, local flexibility and solvation. Coarse‑grained Langevin dynamics reproduce these distributions and indicate that bending energy and conformational entropy govern conformer stability. Metal binding localizes the knotted region, reminiscent of protein/DNA knot translocation. The synthon also affords trefoiled poly(ethylene glycol) and trefoiled polystyrene-poly(ethylene glycol) diblock copolymers, demonstrating the generality of the approach across polymer backbones.

PMID:
42374151
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 30 Jun 2026.

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