A hetero-stranded double helix composed of m-diethynylbenzene-based complementary molecular strands stabilized by amidinium-carboxylate salt bridges

A hetero-stranded double helix with a controlled helix sense was designed and synthesized from an optically active dimeric amidine and its complementary achiral dicarboxylic acid strand with conjugated m-diethynylbenzene backbones, being stabilized by the salt bridges.