New self-assembled supramolecular polymers formed by self-complementary sextuple hydrogen bond motifs

Abstract

A new supramolecular material, N-(6-(3-(2,4-dioxo-3,4-dihydropyrimidin-1(2H)-yl)propanamido)pyridin-2-yl)undec-10-enamide (U-DPy) possesses an extremely high association constant (K_a >10⁷ M⁻¹), which is able to dimerize through a self-complementary sextuple hydrogen-bonding array. As the end groups of an oligomer, U-DPy forms a self-assembling polymer system. These new mono- and difunctional telechelic supramolecular polymers have highly prominent properties, leading to a substantial increase in viscosity, thermal stability and unique morphology changes in the solid state. More surprisingly, they can self-organize into lamellar crystallization and a spherical structure. In addition, upon increasing the concentration in the solution state, the size of the resulting spherical structure is gradually increased. These spherical structures are constructed from supramolecular polymers with a high degree of polymerization.