Issue 31, 2017

Morphology transformation of self-assembled organic nanomaterials in aqueous solution induced by stimuli-triggered chemical structure changes

Abstract

Stimuli-responsive shape transformation plays an important role in organisms at various scales, from the molecular, cellular, and to the macroscopic range, and through this process biological entities maintain their normal functions or respond to stress. In recent years, stimuli-triggered self-assembly has been developed to provide elaborate control over structural transformation in supramolecular entities. Various kinds of stimuli-responsiveness have been achieved by incorporating stimuli-sensitive groups into the building blocks in the supramolecular systems, such as pH, light, temperature, redox, and CO2 responsiveness. Therein, facilely available and tractable pH, light, CO2, and enzyme triggers have attracted increasing attention. They usually cause changes in the chemical structure of the corresponding responsive groups in the self-assembly building block molecules, leading to large and robust alternations in hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity, polarity, and charge. Therefore, the morphology and property transformations of self-assembled nanostructures can be modulated effectively and efficiently. The stimuli-triggered morphology transformation of supramolecular assemblies provides a powerful approach to prepare functional organic nanomaterials with well-defined structures in water. Through this approach, nanomaterials with complex and unique morphologies (e.g., micro-/nanostructures or a hierarchical sac structure) can be obtained, which are otherwise inaccessible via conventional self-assembly processes. The dynamic nature of these in situ supramolecular transformations enables applications in photo-electrical devices, sensing, hierarchical cargo release, and in the construction of metastable materials, etc. Avoidance of the use of organic solvents, a simplified in situ fabrication process, and operation in combination with relatively “green” triggers, such as pH, light, CO2, and enzymes, promote this approach as an environmentally friendly and economic strategy for the development of “green materials”. Herein, we review the morphology transformations of self-assembled organic nanomaterials in aqueous solution induced by pH, light, CO2, or enzyme-triggered chemical structure changes. This review mainly focuses on the design, transformation conditions, morphology changes, mechanisms, and possible functions of the supramolecular transformation systems.

Graphical abstract: Morphology transformation of self-assembled organic nanomaterials in aqueous solution induced by stimuli-triggered chemical structure changes

Article information

Article type
Review Article
Submitted
06 מרץ 2017
Accepted
21 מאי 2017
First published
24 מאי 2017

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2017,5, 16059-16104

Morphology transformation of self-assembled organic nanomaterials in aqueous solution induced by stimuli-triggered chemical structure changes

W. Zhang and C. Gao, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2017, 5, 16059 DOI: 10.1039/C7TA02038D

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements