title: Supramolecular Diblock Copolymers Featuring Well-defined Telechelic Building Blocks.
abstract: We report supramolecular AB diblock copolymers comprised of well-defined telechelic building blocks. Helical motifs, formed via reversible addition-fragmentation chain-transfer (RAFT) or anionic polymerization, are assembled with coil-forming and sheet-featuring blocks obtained via atom-transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) or ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP). Interpolymer hydrogen bonding or metal-coordination achieves dynamic diblock architectures featuring hybrid topologies of coils, helices, and/or π-stacked sheets that, on a basic level, mimic protein structural motifs in fully synthetic systems. The intrinsic properties of each block (e.g., circular dichroism and fluorescence) remain unaffected in the wake of self-assembly. This strategy to develop complex synthetic polymer scaffolds from functional building blocks is significant in a field striving to produce architectures reminiscent of biosynthesis, yet fully synthetic in nature. This is the first plug-and-play approach to fabricate hybrid π-sheet/helix, π-sheet/coil, and helix/coil architectures via directional self-assembly.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Design Institute and Department of Chemistry, New York University, 100 Washington Square East, New York, NY, 10003, USA.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Elacqua
authors.affiliation: Molecular Design Institute and Department of Chemistry, New York University, 100 Washington Square East, New York, NY, 10003, USA.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Croom
authors.affiliation: Molecular Design Institute and Department of Chemistry, New York University, 100 Washington Square East, New York, NY, 10003, USA.
authors.forename: Kylie B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Manning
authors.affiliation: Molecular Design Institute and Department of Chemistry, New York University, 100 Washington Square East, New York, NY, 10003, USA.
authors.forename: Scott K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Pomarico
authors.affiliation: Molecular Design Institute and Department of Chemistry, New York University, 100 Washington Square East, New York, NY, 10003, USA.
authors.forename: Diane
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lye
authors.affiliation: Molecular Design Institute and Department of Chemistry, New York University, 100 Washington Square East, New York, NY, 10003, USA.
authors.forename: Lauren
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Young
authors.affiliation: Molecular Design Institute and Department of Chemistry, New York University, 100 Washington Square East, New York, NY, 10003, USA.
authors.forename: Marcus
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-6486-4268
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Weck
keywords: block copolymers; self-assembly; supramolecular chemistry; supramolecular polymers