Abstract
AbstractIn chemically fueled supramolecular materials, molecular self‐assembly is coupled to a fuel‐driven chemical reaction cycle. The fuel‐dependence makes the material dynamic and endows it with exciting properties like adaptivity and autonomy. In contrast to the large work on the self‐assembly of small molecules, we herein designed a diblock copolymer, which self‐assembles into transient micelles when coupled to a fuel‐driven chemical reaction cycle. Moreover, we used these transient block copolymer micelles to locally increase the concentration of hydrophobic reagents and thereby function as a transient nanoreactor.
Highlights
In chemically fueled self-assembly, the self-assembly of molecules is regulated by a fuel-driven chemical reaction cycle.[1]
The poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) block was chosen as a permanent hydrophilic block that does not change its function in response to the reaction cycle
The poly(styrene-alt-maleic acid) (PSMA) block is hydrophilic by nature but can be activated by the chemical reaction cycle to become hydrophobic
Summary
In chemically fueled self-assembly, the self-assembly of molecules is regulated by a fuel-driven chemical reaction cycle.[1]. The emerging dynamic assemblies range from oil- or coacervated-based droplets,[5f, 6] colloids,[7] vesicles,[5g, 8] fibers,[2a, 2b, 5a, 5b, 5e, 9] supramolecular polymers,[10] hybridized DNA,[4, 11] clusters of nano- or microparticles[2c, 5c, 5d] and others. Due to their fuel dependence, the emerging assemblies and their material properties show a limited lifetime which can be tuned by the amount of fuel added.[12]. Exciting examples of such materials include self-erasing inks,[5e, 13], transient photonics,[14] temporary hydrogels,[5a, 11c, 15] transient emulsions,[5f, 6d] and transient nanoreactors.[16]
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