Induced chiral helical effect on the main chain of aliphatic polyacetylenes

11‐Dodecyn‐1‐ol as an achiral, aliphatic, monosubstituted acetylene was copolymerized with cholesteryl 3‐butynyl carbonate as a chiral, aliphatic, monosubstituted acetylene with Rh(nbd)[B(C₆H₅)₄] (nbd = norbornadiene) in tetrahydrofuran. The main chain of the obtained copolymers seemed to be mainly composed of the cis‐type structure. The backbone π–π* transition of these copolymers showed significant circular dichroism (CD), indicating an excess of one‐handed helical conformation. These CD signals were varied with the contents of the cholesteryl units in the copolymers. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 39: 913–917, 2001