Conformational Properties of Aromatic Oligoamides Bearing Pyrrole Rings.

N-Alkylbenzanilides generally exist in cis conformation both in the crystalline state and in various solvents, and this cis conformational preference can be utilized to construct dynamic helical oligoamides. Here, we synthesized the pyrrole-containing amides 2-5 and their oligomers 6-8 and examined their conformations in the crystalline state and in solution. All the N-methylated amides showed cis conformational preference in solution, but the ratio of the cis isomer was decreased when the amide bond was attached at the 4-position of the pyrrole ring, probably because the destabilization of the trans conformer due to electronic repulsion between the pyrrole π electrons and the amide carbonyl lone-pair electrons is reduced due to the small torsion angle between the 5-membered N-pyrrole and the amide bond.