Template‐Induced Screw Motions within an Aromatic Amide Foldamer Double Helix

Screwed in place: An anti‐parallel double‐helical aromatic oligoamide foldamer was shown to bind to a series of rodlike guests of various lengths upon the winding of the duplex around the guests (see scheme). Solid‐state crystal structures of the host–guest complexes show that the two strands of the duplex undergo a relative screw motion to adjust the distance between hydrogen‐bond donors located at the end of one of their extremities so that they bind to hydrogen‐bond acceptors of the guest.