Issue 33, 2021

Crystallization and self-assembly of shape-complementary sequence-defined peptoids

Abstract

The universal pairing of complementary nucleobases in DNA found in all life forms has inspired extensive studies on selective molecular recognition between information-rich sequence-defined polymer chains. Here we utilized the shape complementarity of sequence-defined peptoids to achieve selective assembly between peptoid chains. Three sets of self-complementary peptoids bearing different overall molecular shapes, determined by the monomer sequence (trapezoid, comb and zig-zag), were synthesized and systematically studied by differential scanning calorimetry and X-ray diffraction. All these peptoids crystallized in bulk into a nearly identical rectangular crystal lattice as evidenced by their similar melting temperatures and X-ray diffraction peaks. In aqueous solution, they all self-assembled into crystalline monolayer nanosheets with a known rectangular crystal lattice motif, regardless of their varied molecular shapes. These results suggest that complementary molecular shape could be a potential design element for the construction of more sophisticated, hierarchically-ordered peptoid nanomaterials that approach the structural and functional complexity found in biomacromolecular nanostructure.

Graphical abstract: Crystallization and self-assembly of shape-complementary sequence-defined peptoids

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
27 mar 2021
Accepted
27 mai 2021
First published
01 jun 2021

Polym. Chem., 2021,12, 4770-4777

Author version available

Crystallization and self-assembly of shape-complementary sequence-defined peptoids

S. Xuan, X. Jiang, N. P. Balsara and R. N. Zuckermann, Polym. Chem., 2021, 12, 4770 DOI: 10.1039/D1PY00426C

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