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Supramolecular Diblock Copolymers Featuring Well‐defined Telechelic Building Blocks
Author(s) -
Elacqua Elizabeth,
Croom Anna,
Manning Kylie B.,
Pomarico Scott K.,
Lye Diane,
Young Lauren,
Weck Marcus
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/anie.201609103
Subject(s) - copolymer , materials science , polymerization , supramolecular chemistry , atom transfer radical polymerization , self assembly , chain transfer , romp , raft , circular dichroism , reversible addition−fragmentation chain transfer polymerization , polymer , polymer chemistry , metathesis , radical polymerization , nanotechnology , chemistry , molecule , crystallography , composite material , organic chemistry
We report supramolecular AB diblock copolymers comprised of well‐defined telechelic building blocks. Helical motifs, formed via reversible addition‐fragmentation chain‐transfer (RAFT) or anionic polymerization, are assembled with coil‐forming and sheet‐featuring blocks obtained via atom‐transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) or ring‐opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP). Interpolymer hydrogen bonding or metal‐coordination achieves dynamic diblock architectures featuring hybrid topologies of coils, helices, and/or π‐stacked sheets that, on a basic level, mimic protein structural motifs in fully synthetic systems. The intrinsic properties of each block (e.g., circular dichroism and fluorescence) remain unaffected in the wake of self‐assembly. This strategy to develop complex synthetic polymer scaffolds from functional building blocks is significant in a field striving to produce architectures reminiscent of biosynthesis, yet fully synthetic in nature. This is the first plug‐and‐play approach to fabricate hybrid π‐sheet/helix, π‐sheet/coil, and helix/coil architectures via directional self‐assembly.