Monodisperse Cylindrical Micelles of Controlled Length with a Liquid-Crystalline Perfluorinated Core by 1D “Self-Seeding”

Steroid-Based Liquid Crystalline Polymers: Responsive and Biocompatible Materials of the Future

Steroid-based liquid crystal polymers and co-polymers have come a long way, with new and significant advances being made every year. This paper reviews some of the recent key developments in steroid-based liquid crystal polymers and co-polymers. It covers the structure–property relationship between cholesterol and sterol-based compounds and their corresponding polymers, and the influence of chemical structure and synthesis conditions on the liquid crystalline behaviour. An overview of the nature of self-assembly of these materials in solvents and through polymerisation is given. The role of liquid crystalline properties in the applications of these materials, in the creation of nano-objects, drug delivery and biomedicine and photonic and electronic devices, is discussed.

Continuous and Segmented Semiconducting Fiber-like Nanostructures with Spatially Selective Functionalization by Living Crystallization-Driven Self-Assembly

Fiber-like π-conjugated nanostructures are important components of flexible organic electronic and optoelectronic devices. To broaden the range of potential applications, one needs to control not only the length of these nanostructures, but the introduction of diverse functionality with spatially selective control. Here we report the synthesis of a crystalline-coil block copolymer of oligo(p-phenylenevinylene)-b-poly(2-vinylpyridine) (OPV₅ -b-P2VP₄₄ ), in which the basicity and coordinating/chelating ability of the P2VP segment provide a landscape for the incorporation of a variety of functional inorganic NPs. Through a self-seeding strategy, we were able to prepare monodisperse fiber-like micelles of OPV₅ -b-P2VP₄₄ with lengths ranging from 50 to 800 nm. Significantly, the exposed two ends of OPV core of these fiber-like micelles remained active toward further epitaxial deposition of OPV₅ -b-PNIPAM₄₉ and OPV₅ -b-P2VP₄₄ to generate uniform A-B-A and B-A-B-A-B segmented block comicelles with tunable lengths for each block. The P2VP domains in these (co-)micelles can be selectively decorated with inorganic and polymeric nanoparticles as well as metal oxide coatings, to afford hybrid fiber-like nanostructures. This work provides a versatile strategy toward the fabrication of narrow length dispersity continuous and segmented π-conjugated OPV-containing fiber-like micelles with the capacity to be decorated in a spatially selective way with varying functionalities.

Living Supramolecular Polymerization of an Aza-BODIPY Dye Controlled by a Hydrogen-Bond-Accepting Triazole Unit Introduced by Click Chemistry

An aza-BODIPY dye 1 bearing two hydrophobic fan-shaped tridodecyloxybenzamide pendants through 1,2,3-triazole linkages was synthesized by a click reaction and characterized. ¹ H NMR studies indicated that dye 1 exhibited variable conformations through intramolecular H-bonding interaction, which is beneficial for the polymorphism of aggregation. The thermodynamic, structural, and kinetic aspect of the supramolecular polymerization of dye 1 was investigated by UV/Vis absorption spectroscopy, IR spectroscopy, AFM, TEM, and SEM. Biphasic aggregation pathways of dye 1, leads to the formation of off-pathway, metastable Agg. I and thermodynamically stable Agg. II with distinct H-aggregation spectra and nanoscale morphology. The living manner of the supramolecular polymerization of dye 1 was demonstrated in seeded polymerization experiments with temperature-modulated successive cooling-heating cycles.