Computational analysis of side-chain conformations in polyaspartates exhibiting reversible helical sense inversion in the solid state

Poly(β-phenylpropyl -aspartate), poly(β-phenylbutyl -aspartate), and poly(β-phenylpentyl -aspartate) exhibit a reversible transformation from a right-handed -helix (_R) to a left-handed ω-helix (ω_L) in the solid state. During this transition, the infrared (IR) dichroism of the side-chain ester group and the birefringence change drastically, showing that the side-chain conformations are different for these two helices. In the present study, for the purpose of elucidating the preferred side-chain conformation in each helix, we performed the computational analyses. The energy contours, the directions of the IR transition moments and the anisotropies in polarizability as functions of the first two dihedral angles of the side chain, χ₁ and χ₂ were calculated. Then, comparing them with the experimental IR dichroism and birefringence data, we elucidated the specific side-chain conformation preferred for each _R or ω_L skeleton. The preferred values of (χ₁, χ₂) were found to be (?75, ?60°) for _R and (180, 45°) for ω_L.