Water-binding foldamers have been rarely studied. By orienting both H-bond donors and acceptors toward their interior, two pyridine-derived crescent-shaped folding oligoamides were found to be capable of trapping both conventional and unconventional water dimer clusters in their cavity (∼ 2.5 Å radius). In the unconventional water dimer cluster, the two water molecules stay in contact via an unusual H–H interaction (2.25 Å) rather than the ...
