1415663-15-8Relevant articles and documents
Heat-induced morphological transformation of supramolecular nanostructures by retro-Diels-Alder reaction
Ikeda, Masato,Ochi, Rika,Kurita, Yu-Shi,Pochan, Darrin J.,Hamachi, Itaru
, p. 13091 - 13096 (2013/01/15)
Controlling the morphology of supramolecular nanostructures in response to external stimuli is an important challenge in the development of functional soft materials. Here we show that a morphological transformation from 2D nanosheets to a network of 1D nanofibers is triggered by heating, which induces molecular conversion of a bolaamphiphile to a hydrogelator by means of a retro-Diels-Alder reaction, thereby producing a new heat-set supramolecular hydrogel. We anticipate that our design will be a starting point for more sophisticated supramolecular systems that integrate the thermodynamics of molecular assembly and the kinetics of chemical reactions to create complex supramolecular nanostructures. The heat is on: We show that a morphological transformation from 2D nanosheets to a network of 1D nanofibers is triggered by heating (see figure), which induces molecular conversion of a bolaamphiphile to a hydrogelator by means of a retro-Diels-Alder reaction, thereby producing a new heat-set supramolecular hydrogel. Copyright