title: Superstructure Formation and Topological Evolution Achieved by Self-Organization of a Highly Adaptive Dynamer.
abstract: The adaptive property of supramolecular building blocks facilitates noncovalent synthesis of soft materials. While it is still a challenging task, fine-tuning and precise control over topological nanostructures constructed from the self-assembly of low-molecular-weight building blocks are an important research direction to investigate the structure-property relationship. Herein, we report controlled self-assembly evolution of a low-molecular-weight building block bearing cholesterol and naphthalene-dicarboximide moieties, showing ultrasensitivity to solvent polarity. In low-polarity solvents (<4), it could form an M-type fiber-constituted organogel (supergel) with high solvent content, columnar molecular packing, and self-healing property. Highly polar solvents (>7.8) favor the formation of P-type helical nanostructures terminated by nanotoroids, having lamellar molecular packing. With a further increase in solvent polarity (up to 9.6), unilamellar and multilamellar vesicles were generated, which could undergo an aggregation-induced fusion process to form branched nanotubes tuned by the concentration. Self-attractive interactions between aggregates were found to be responsible for the formation of superstructures including helix-nanotoroid junctions as well as membrane-fused nanotubes.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Colloid and Interface Chemistry of Ministry of Education and School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shandong University , Jinan 250100, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Pengyao
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Xing
authors.affiliation: Division of Chemistry and Biological Chemistry, School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University , 21 Nanyang Link, Singapore 637371, Singapore.
authors.forename: Hongzhong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Division of Chemistry and Biological Chemistry, School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University , 21 Nanyang Link, Singapore 637371, Singapore.
authors.forename: Linyi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Colloid and Interface Chemistry of Ministry of Education and School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shandong University , Jinan 250100, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Aiyou
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hao
authors.affiliation: Division of Chemistry and Biological Chemistry, School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University , 21 Nanyang Link, Singapore 637371, Singapore.|School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University , Singapore 639798, Singapore.
authors.forename: Yanli
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhao
keywords: adaptive dynamer; morphological evolution; self-assembly; superstructures; vesicles