title: Post-self-assembly cross-linking to integrate molecular nanofibers with copolymers in oscillatory hydrogels.
abstract: We study the use of post-self-assembly cross-linking to combine molecular nanofibers of hydrogelators with copolymers to generate oscillatory materials using the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction. The formation of nanofibers from designed hydrogelators provides multiple polymerizable sites for copolymerizing with N-isopropylacrylamide and for attaching a catalytic ruthenium bipyridine complex on the copolymer. The combination of supramolecular self-assembly with copolymerization offers a versatile and facile approach for generating soft materials that have large pores in the gel network and robust mechanical integrity. These larger pores facilitate the diffusion of the reactants and accelerate the chemical oscillation by about a factor of 4 relative to a poly(NIPAAm-Ru) gel that contains no molecular nanofibers.
authors: Department of Chemistry, Brandeis University, 415 South Street, Waltham, Massachusetts 02454, USA.
authors: Ye
authors: Y
authors: Zhang
authors: Rong
authors: R
authors: Zhou
authors: Junfeng
authors: J
authors: Shi
authors: Ning
authors: N
authors: Zhou
authors: Irving R
authors: IR
authors: Epstein
authors: Bing
authors: B
authors: Xu