Chemical reaction driven self-assembly of a nucleobase functionalized molecule

Abstract

Molecular self-assembly is an important aspect in the nano technology and nano science which is exploited to produce complex supramolecular nanoarchitectures. Different strategies are used to achieve the molecular self-assembly in the laboratory. Here, the methylation reaction is used to induce the supramolecular order in the synthesized guanine functionalized molecules. Methylation is an important biological process which is used for DNA methylation. The methylation reaction driven formation of higher order self-assembly is discussed. The formation of the activated building blocks is studied using high-performance liquid chromatography. The N7 methylation is observed majorly. The pH of the medium is decreased with the progress of the reaction. The progress of self-assembly upon the addition of dimethyl sulphate is monitored by fluorescence, circular dichroism spectroscopy, 1H nuclear magnetic resonance and turbidity experiments. Additionally, Thioflavin T dye binding, wide-angle powder X-ray diffraction, circular dichroism spectroscopy experiments are performed to establish the formation of the chemical reaction driven self-assembled hydrogel. The formation of the nanofiber inside the hydrogel is confirmed by performing various microscopic experiments.