Abstract
Topology plays an important role in polymeric materials. Herein, we present an iterative, modular approach for creating tetra-arylsubstituted alkene (TAA)-based dynamic conjugated oligomers with diverse topologies, using boronate-protected Suzuki-Miyaura coupling chemistry. The TAA building blocks involving spontaneous alkene isomerization are found to induce conformational dynamics in the conjugated backbones, exhibiting steric-controlled transitions. These transitions occur from a twisted backbone rich in cis-alkenes in the linear PL9 oligomer, to a stretched backbone with a trans-alkene center and multiple cis-alkene end in the three-armed planar PY12 oligomer and the four-armed 3D PX16 oligomer. Consequently, these topological oligomers exhibit distinct photoluminescence and photochemical properties depending on their physical state. Experimental characterization and molecular dynamics simulations (MD) reveal a topology-dependent adaptive self-assembly of helices: linear PL9 forms long flexible helical fibers with a pitch of 28 nm; planar Y-type PY12 oligomers often occur in neural-like networks, connected by nanofibers and cell-like central aggregates; and stereo X-type PX16 adopts short helical rod-like morphology with a mesoscopic pitch of 86 nm in crystalline phases. This work may inspire concepts and the practical construction of helical and neural-like fiber materials by altering unit topology in dynamic conjugated oligomers.
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The data supplementary the findings of this study are available in the article. All data are available from the corresponding author upon request. Source Data are provided with this manuscript. The data in this manuscript do not include clinical data or third-party data; all data originate from the authors’ experimental work. The experimental characterization and computational data generated in this paper are provided in the supplementary information. Source data are provided with this paper.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52525306 and 22375059), Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Program (JCYJ20220530160403008), and Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province (2023JJ50002 and 2024RC1027). Thanks to the Analytical Instrumentation Center of Hunan University, and the AIE institute (www.aietech.org.cn) for providing technical assistance.
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S.X., Z.Z., and B.Z.T. designed the research. Q.B., Ying Zhao, C.Z., Y.Z. ‘affiliation 1’, and Y.Z. ‘affiliation 3’ performed the research. Q.B. and S.X. conducted the analyses. S.X., Z.Z., and B.Z.T. supervised the research. Q.B. and S.X. wrote the paper. All authors substantially revised and edited the manuscript.
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Bian, Q., Zhao, Y., Zhang, C. et al. Topology-controlled dynamic conjugated oligomers from tetra-arylsubstituted alkene building blocks. Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-70106-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-70106-x
