Preparation and helical folding of aromatic polyamidesElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Synthetic procedures, additional spectra and analytical data. See DOI: 10.1039/c2cc35886g

Long aromatic polyamide chains are prepared from the corresponding monomers. The resultant polymer adopts a hollow helical conformation that is stabilized by intramolecular H-bonding interaction between side chains. Long aromatic polyamide chains that fold into helical conformations are prepared from the corresponding monomers.