TY - JOUR
T1 - Dynamic Assemblies of Molecular Motor Amphiphiles Control Macroscopic Foam Properties
AU - Chen, Shaoyu
AU - Leung, Franco King Chi
AU - Stuart, Marc C.A.
AU - Wang, Chaoxia
AU - Feringa, Ben L.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported financially by the China Scholarship Council (No. 201706790063 to S.Y.C.), the Croucher Foundation (Croucher Postdoctoral Fellowship to F.K.C.L.), The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO-CW), the European Research Council (ERC; Advanced Grant No. 694345 to B.L.F.), the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (Gravitation Program No. 024.001.035) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (21174055), National First-Class Discipline Program of Light Industry Technology and Engineering (LITE2018-21), 111 Project (B17021), the Postgraduate Research & Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Provence (No. KYCX17_1435 to S.Y.C.), and the Excellent Doctoral Cultivation Project of Jiangnan University. The authors thanks L. Rohrbach for the technical support in the surface tension measurements.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2020 American Chemical Society.
PY - 2020/6/3
Y1 - 2020/6/3
N2 - Stimuli-responsive supramolecular assemblies controlling macroscopic transformations with high structural fluidity, i.e., foam properties, have attractive prospects for applications in soft materials ranging from biomedical systems to industrial processes, e.g., textile coloring. However, identifying the key processes for the amplification of molecular motion to a macroscopic level response is of fundamental importance for exerting the full potential of macroscopic structural transformations by external stimuli. Herein, we demonstrate the control of dynamic supramolecular assemblies in aqueous media and as a consequence their macroscopic foam properties, e.g., foamability and foam stability, by large geometrical transformations of dual light/heat stimuli-responsive molecular motor amphiphiles. Detailed insight into the reversible photoisomerization and thermal helix inversion at the molecular level, supramolecular assembly transformations at the microscopic level, and the stimuli-responsive foam properties at the macroscopic level, as determined by UV-vis absorption and NMR spectroscopies, electron microscopy, and foamability and in situ surface tension measurements, is presented. By selective use of external stimuli, e.g., light or heat, multiple states and properties of macroscopic foams can be controlled with very dilute aqueous solutions of the motor amphiphiles (0.2 weight%), demonstrating the potential of multiple stimuli-responsive supramolecular systems based on an identical molecular amphiphile and providing opportunities for future soft materials.
AB - Stimuli-responsive supramolecular assemblies controlling macroscopic transformations with high structural fluidity, i.e., foam properties, have attractive prospects for applications in soft materials ranging from biomedical systems to industrial processes, e.g., textile coloring. However, identifying the key processes for the amplification of molecular motion to a macroscopic level response is of fundamental importance for exerting the full potential of macroscopic structural transformations by external stimuli. Herein, we demonstrate the control of dynamic supramolecular assemblies in aqueous media and as a consequence their macroscopic foam properties, e.g., foamability and foam stability, by large geometrical transformations of dual light/heat stimuli-responsive molecular motor amphiphiles. Detailed insight into the reversible photoisomerization and thermal helix inversion at the molecular level, supramolecular assembly transformations at the microscopic level, and the stimuli-responsive foam properties at the macroscopic level, as determined by UV-vis absorption and NMR spectroscopies, electron microscopy, and foamability and in situ surface tension measurements, is presented. By selective use of external stimuli, e.g., light or heat, multiple states and properties of macroscopic foams can be controlled with very dilute aqueous solutions of the motor amphiphiles (0.2 weight%), demonstrating the potential of multiple stimuli-responsive supramolecular systems based on an identical molecular amphiphile and providing opportunities for future soft materials.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85085908785&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1021/jacs.0c03153
DO - 10.1021/jacs.0c03153
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 32379449
AN - SCOPUS:85085908785
SN - 0002-7863
VL - 142
SP - 10163
EP - 10172
JO - Journal of the American Chemical Society
JF - Journal of the American Chemical Society
IS - 22
ER -