Qiao Song

Supramolecular Hydrogels Fabricated from Supramonomers: A Novel Wound Dressing Material

Daily repeated wound dressing changes will lead to additional trauma to newly formed tissue and prolonging the healing process. In this letter, we designed and fabricated an easily removable wound dressing material. To accomplish this, we first generated cross-linkable supramonomers through host-guest noncovalent interaction, followed by radical copolymerization of acrylamide with supramonomer as cross-linker to fabricate supramolecular hydrogels. Benefiting from the dynamic nature of the supramonomer, the supramolecular hydrogel is able to dissolve upon exposure to memantine, an FDA approved drug, making it easily removed from a wound, representing a promising candidate for the new generation of wound dressing.

Supramolecular polymerization of supramonomers: a way for fabricating supramolecular polymers

This communication describes a new method of fabricating supramolecular polymers through supramolecular polymerization of supramonomers. To mix building blocks of Phe-Gly-Gly linked with an azobenzene group and cucurbit[8]uril (CB[8]) in a molar ratio of 2 : 1 in aqueous solutions, supramonomers were obtained by host–guest interaction between tripeptide and CB[8]. Then supramolecular polymers were formed spontaneously by mixing the supramonomers with bis-β-cyclodextrins in a molar ratio of 1 : 1 in an aqueous solution through noncovalent host–guest complexation of the azobenzene group and β-cyclodextrin. Considering that various noncovalent interactions can be used to drive the formation of supramonomers and the supramolecular polymerization of the supramonomers, this study can enrich the methodology of fabricating supramolecular polymers.

Supra-amphiphiles formed by complexation of azulene-based amphiphiles and pyrene in aqueous solution: from cylindrical micelles to disklike nanosheets

We have fabricated supra-amphiphiles by charge-transfer complexation of azulene-based amphiphiles and pyrene in water, and the self-assembled nanostructures can reversibly change between cylindrical micelles and disklike nanosheets in response to interaction with guest molecules.

Supramolecular polymers synthesized by thiol–ene click polymerization from supramonomers

This communication describes the fabrication of supramonomers based on supramolecular complexation between cucurbit[8]uril and the tetrapeptide Phe-Gly-Gly-Cys. The supramolecular polymers are obtained by thiol–ene click polymerization of the supramonomers with maleimide-terminated poly(ethylene glycol). Benefiting from the green and pH dependent nature of thiol–ene click reaction, it is expected that this line of research will enrich the methodology for fabricating supramolecular polymers with controlled compositions and structures.

Tuning the Energy Gap by Supramolecular Approaches: Towards Near‐Infrared Organic Assemblies and Materials

Near-infrared (NIR) organic materials are of great importance for both fundamental research and practical applications. While much effort has been taken to covalently design and synthesize NIR organic materials with a low energy gap, there are supramolecular approaches for tuning the energy gap to noncovalently fabricate NIR organic assemblies and materials. In this concept article, we summarize and discuss several supramolecular approaches, including the fabrication of charge transfer supramolecular complexes, the fabrication of supramolecular J-aggregates, and the fabrication of supramolecularly stabilized organic radicals. The nature of noncovalent interactions in supramolecular approaches can provide NIR organic assemblies and materials with unique properties such as reversibility, stimuli-responsiveness, recyclability, and adaptive abilities.

Supramolecular Interfacial Polymerization: A Controllable Method of Fabricating Supramolecular Polymeric Materials

Abstract A new method of supramolecular polymerization at the water–oil interface is developed. As a demonstration, an oil‐soluble supramonomer containing two thiol end groups linked by two ureidopyrimidinone units and a water‐soluble monomer bearing two maleimide end groups are employed. Supramolecular interfacial polymerization can be implemented by a thiol–maleimide click reaction at the water–chloroform interface to obtain supramolecular polymeric films. The glass transition temperature of such supramolecular polymers can be well‐tuned by simply changing the polymerization time and temperature. It is highly anticipated that this work will provide a facile and general approach to realize control over supramolecular polymerization by transferring the preparation of supramolecular polymers from solutions to water–oil interfaces and construct supramolecular materials with well‐defined properties.

Layer-by-Layer Assembly of Azulene-Based Supra-Amphiphiles: Reversible Encapsulation of Organic Molecules in Water by Charge- Transfer Interaction

Stable multilayer films have been fabricated on the basis of alternating layer-by-layer assembly of an azulene-based supra-amphiphile and a photoreactive polyanion. Moreover, one component of the supra-amphiphile, pyrene, can be removed from the multilayer films, generating functional surface-imprinted multilayer films. Uptake experiments show that the surface-imprinted films are capable of recognizing the hydrophobic template molecule in water. The reloading process increases with increasing of temperature. The loading capacity can be regulated by change of the layer pairs. In addition, the as-prepared multilayers are promising in purification of pyrene-polluted water.

Two-Dimensional Folded Nanosheets Lead to an Unusual Circular Dichroism Effect in Aqueous Solution

We found that two-dimensional (2D) folded nanosheets with crystalline structure in aqueous solution could induce an unusual time-dependent circular dichroism (CD) effect in the CD measurements after shaking or stirring the solution. In addition, a critical damping curve was observed in the CD spectrum after stop of stirring the solution. The apparent CD effect actually originates from linear dichroism (LD) changes in the oscillations of two-dimensional folded nanosheets and the inherent optical imperfections of the CD instruments. The oscillations of the folded nanosheets should induce this CD effect by the conformational change. Although an unusual apparent CD effect in alignment of one-dimensional (1D) dye-containing supramolecular nanofibers has been documented, this study reports for the first time that 2D folded nanosheets can lead to such a CD effect. It is anticipated that the method may provide a way to spectroscopically visualize the dynamic conformational change of self-assemblies in solutions.