title: Spontaneous structural transition and crystal formation in minimal supramolecular polymer model.
abstract: The association of building blocks into supramolecular polymers allows the fabrication of diverse functional architectures at the nanoscale. The use of minimal assembly units to explore polymer dynamics and phase transitions significantly contributes to the application of polymer physicochemical paradigms in the field of supramolecular polymers. We present a minimal model that displays spontaneous coordinated structural transitions between micro- and nanostructures, hydrogels with nanoscale order, and single crystals. The simple amphiphilic 9-fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (Fmoc-DOPA) modified amino acid undergoes a noninduced transition from spherical assemblies into nanofibrils followed by sol-gel transition, nanotube formation via intermediate assembly, and crystallization within the gel. Notably, the transition kinetics is slow enough to allow both multistage and multiscale characterization of the supramolecular arrangement using electron microscopy, vibrational and circular dichroism spectroscopies, nuclear magnetic resonance, and x-ray crystallography. This minimalistic system is the first comprehensive model for a complete spontaneous structural transition between diverse states governed by distinct molecular interactions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel.
authors.forename: Galit
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fichman
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel.
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Guterman
authors.affiliation: Biophysics and Department of Chemistry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1055, USA.
authors.forename: Joshua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Damron
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel.; Department of Oral Biology, The Goldschleger School of Dental Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel.
authors.forename: Lihi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Adler-Abramovich
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel.
authors.forename: Judith
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel.
authors.forename: Ellina
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kesselman
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Research Support, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
authors.forename: Linda J W
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-7861-9247
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Shimon
authors.affiliation: Biophysics and Department of Chemistry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1055, USA.
authors.forename: Ayyalusamy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ramamoorthy
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel.
authors.forename: Yeshayahu
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-9854-3972
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Talmon
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel.; Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Iby and Aladar Fleischman Faculty of Engineering, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel.
authors.forename: Ehud
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gazit
keywords: minimal model; nanoscale building blocks.; phase transition; self-assembly; supramolecular polymers