Controllable fabrication of a supramolecular polymer incorporating twisted cucurbit[14]uril and cucurbit[8]uril via self-sorting

A linear supramolecular polymer with controllable features based on twisted cucurbit[14]uril(tQ[14])and cucurbit[8]uril(Q[8])was firstly fabricated via an effective self-sorting strategy.Herein we designed a monomer,1–butyl–1?-(naphthalen-2-ylmethyl)-4,4?-bipyridinium bromide(BNB),that contains bipyridyl,aliphatic butyl and aromatic naphthyl groups,simultaneously.Two host molecules,tQ[14]and Q[8]were employed to develop an effective strategy for constructing a linear supramolecular polymer with con-trollable features.The alkyl groups on both sides of BNB could insert into the two cavities of tQ[14],the naphthyl part of BNB viaπ-πstacking in Q[8]cavity,serving as the driving force for supramolecular polymerization.Through self-sorting of the monomer,tQ[14]and Q[8],led to the formation of the linear supramolecular polymer.Depolymerization could be achieved by addition of adamantane hydrochloride(AH)which driven two BNB guest molecules out of the Q[8]cavity.This self-sorting strategy has great potential,not only for designing supramolecular polymer materials with different controllable structures through introduction of multiple functional groups,but also for broadening the application of twisted cucurbit[14]uril in supramolecular chemistry.