title: Nanoscale Control of Polymer Assembly on a Synthetic Catalyst-Bilayer System.
abstract: The use of the interior of self-assembled membrane as a template for polymer synthesis and assembly has long attracted the interest of chemists. However, it is difficult to utilize a lipid membrane as a chemical reactor for controlled assembly for polymers because lipid membrane is easily destabilized by loading of extraneous molecules. We found that a several-nanometer-thick bilayer vesicle made by self-assembly of an organic fullerene amphiphile doped with a metathesis catalyst serves as a nanosized chemical reactor in water, where a polymer is synthesized and assembled, depending on the affinity of the growing polymer to the organic groups on the amphiphile. This catalyst-bilayer system can thus control supramolecular assembly of the ester-functionalized polymer product into different nanoscale structures: a nanoparticle made of a single polymer chain and a nanocapsule made of several tens of polymer chains.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, The University of Tokyo , 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
authors.forename: Ricardo M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Gorgoll
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, The University of Tokyo , 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
authors.forename: Koji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Harano
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, The University of Tokyo , 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
authors.forename: Eiichi
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Nakamura