Premium
Helicity‐ and Molecular‐Weight‐Driven Self‐Sorting and Assembly of Helical Polymers towards Two‐Dimensional Smectic Architectures and Selectively Adhesive Gels
Author(s) -
Li YanXiang,
Xu Lei,
Kang ShuMing,
Zhou Li,
Liu Na,
Wu ZongQuan
Publication year - 2021
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.202014813
Subject(s) - polymer , pyrene , self assembly , materials science , helix (gastropod) , folding (dsp implementation) , sorting , polymer chemistry , chemical engineering , chemical physics , crystallography , chemistry , nanotechnology , organic chemistry , engineering , ecology , snail , computer science , electrical engineering , biology , programming language
Self‐sorting plays a crucial role in living systems such as the selective assembly of DNA and specific folding of proteins. However, the self‐sorting of artificial helical polymers such as biomacromolecules has rarely been achieved. In this work, single‐handed helical poly(phenyl isocyanide)s bearing pyrene (Py) and naphthalene (Np) probes were prepared, which exhibited interesting self‐sorting properties driven by both helicity and molecular weight ( M n ) in solution, solid state, gel, and on the gel surface as well. The polymers with the same helix sense and similar M n can self‐sort and assemble into well‐defined two‐dimensional smectic architectures and form stable gels in organic solvents. In contrast, mixed polymers with opposite handedness or different M n were repulsive to each other and did not aggregate. Moreover, the gels of helical polymers with the same handedness and similar M n can recognize themselves and adhere together to form a gel.