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Abstract: Supramolecular polymer is a topic of great interest because of its exceptional
properties like reversibility, stimuli-responsiveness. 1 The dynamic nature and unique properties
of supramolecular polymers make this fascinating class of soft material fit to replace
conventional covalent polymers and compare with biopolymers. 2 I will present very recent
achievement of light-induced dynamic control over foldability of supramolecular polymer
inspired by protein foldability-unfolding. 3 It has been attained from barbituric acid conjugated
naphthalene-azobenzene dyad that has an inherent tendency to form folded supramolecular
polymers with intrinsic curvature and specific secondary structure. Interestingly, the unfolding of
folded polymers is realized upon UV irradiation, and visible light-irradiation recovered
folded polymers with the intrinsic curvature. This unfolding-refolding may mimic the function of
biopolymer in the near. 3 In another study, we showed, like biopolymers and covalent polymer,
topological features of 1D SP chain potentially determine their mechanical stability and
discovered ring-opening polymerization for supramolecular polymer for the first time. 4 Next, I
will be talking about the self-assembly and supramolecular gelation of various short peptides and
use of ferrocene moiety as a scaffold for tuning of peptide conformations as well as for the
realization of redox reversible supramolecular transformations. 5 The peptide gels are successfully
exploited for diverse applications including the in situ synthesis of metal nanoclusters and
dispersion of graphene in the gel matrix to make hybrid gels with enhanced properties. 6
Reference:
1. T. Aida et al. Science 2012, 335, 813–817.
2. De Greef et al. Supramolecular polymers. Nature 2008, 453, 171–173.
3. Adhikari et al. Nature Commun. 2017, 8, 15254.
4. Adhikari et al. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2019, DOI: 10.1002/anie.201811237.
5. Adhikari et al. Chem.Eur. J. 2015, 21, 11560-11572. Chem. Commun. 2014, 50, 5551-5553.
6. Adhikari et al. Chem.Eur. J. 2010, 16, 13698 – 13705; Chem.Eur. J. 2011, 17, 11488 – 11496;
ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2012, 4, 5472−5482. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2013, 52, 5041– 5045. |