SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF WELL-DEFINED BLOCK COPOLYMERS CONTAINING PENDANT,SELF-COMPLEMENTARY QUADRUPLE HYDROGEN BONDING SITES

The title block copolymer (defined as PSUEA) containing pendant,self-complementary quadruple hydrogen bonding sites has been prepared successfully by three steps.First,poly(styrene-b-2-hydroxyethyl acrylate) (defined as PSHEA) was prepared by living radical polymerizing 2-hydroxyethyl acrylate (HEA) initiated by polystyrene (PSt) macro- initiator,which was prepared via nitroxide-mediated polymerization (NMP) technique.After treated by excessive 3-isocyanatomethyl-3,5,5-trimethylcyclohexyl isocyanate (IPDI),...

Artificial stepwise light harvesting system in water constructed by quadruple hydrogen bonding supramolecular polymeric nanoparticles

Stepwise energy transfer is ubiquitous in natural photosynthesis,which greatly promotes the widespread use of solar energy.Herein,we constructed a supramolecular light harvesting system based on sequential energy transfer through the hierarchical self-assembly of M,which contains a cyanostilbene core flanked by two ureidopyrimidinone motifs,endowing itself with both aggregation-induced emission behavior and quadruple hydrogen bonding ability.The monomer M can self-assemble into hydrogen bonded polymers and then form supramolecular polymeric nanoparticles in water through a mini-emulsion process.The nanoparticles were further utilized to encapsulate the relay acceptor ESY and the final acceptor NDI to form a two-step FRET system.Tunable fluorescence including a white-light emission was successfully achieved.Our work not only shows a desirable way for the fabrication of efficient two-step light harvesting systems,but also shows great potential in tunable photoluminescent nanomaterials.

Light-fueled dissipative self-assembly at molecular and macro-scale enabled by a visible-light-responsive transient hetero-complementary quadruple hydrogen bond

The development of out-of-equilibrium self-assembly systems using light as input fuel is highly desirable and promising for the fabrication of smart supramolecular materials. Herein, we report the construction of new artificial light-fueled dissipative molecular and macroscopic self-assembly systems based on a visible-light-responsive transient quadruple H-bonding array, which consists of an azobenzene-modified ureidopyrimidinone(UPy) module(Azo-O-UPy) and a nonphotoactive diamidonaphthyridine(DAN) derived competitive binder(Napy-1). The visible light(410 nm) irradiation can induce the E to Z isomerization of the azobenzene unit of E-Azo-O-UPy to produce Z-Azo-O-UPy with an opened UPy binding site, which can complex with Napy-1 to form a quadruply H-bonded heterodimer. The heterodimer is metastable and can be quickly disassembled in dark, owing to the fast thermal relaxation of Z-Azo-O-UPy to E-Azo-O-UPy. While introducing such transient quadruple H-bonding interaction into a linear polymer system or a polymeric gel system, light-fueled out-of-equilibrium polymeric assembly both at molecular and macro-scale can be achieved.

Modulating the properties of quadruple hydrogen bonded supramolecular polymers by photo-cross-linking between the coumarin moieties

Novel linear supramolecular polymers were successfully constructed by self-assemblies of coumarinbridged bifunctional UPy derivative.Benefitting from the photodimerization ability of the coumarin moieties,the linear supramolecular polymers could form the large three-dimensional polymer networks upon UV light irradiation via photo-cross-linking,which provides a viable and alternative procedure to modulate the properties of supramolecular polymers.

Super-tough and rapidly self-recoverable multi-bond network hydrogels facilitated by 2-ureido-4[1H]-pyrimidone dimers

Multi-bond network(MBN) hydrogels contain hierarchical dynamic bonds with different bond association energy as energy dissipation units,enabling super-tough mechanical properties.In this work,we copolymerize a protonated 2-ureido-4[1 H]-pyrimidone(UPy)-contained monomer with acrylic acid in HCl solution.After removing excess HCl,UPy motifs are deprotonated and from dimers,thus generating an UPy-contained MBN hydrogel.The obtained MBN hydrogels(75 wt% watercontent) exhibit super-tough mechanical properties(0.39 MPa to 2.51 MPa tensile strength),with tremendous amount of energy(1.68 MJ/m^(3) to 11.1 MJ/m^(3)) dissipated by the dissociation of UPy dimers.The introduction of ionic bonds can further improve the mechanical properties.Moreover,owing to their dynamic nature,both UPy dimers and ionic bonds can re-associate after being dissociated,resulting in excellent self-recovery ability(around 90% recovery efficiency within only 1 h).The excellent self-recovery ability mainly originates from the re-association of UPy dimers based on the high dimerization constant of UPy motifs.