Hydrogen-bond-directed 2-D sheet assemblies of sulfamide derivatives: formation of giant vesicles with patchwork-like surface pattern

Investigating the Hydrogen Bond-Induced Self-Assembly of Polysulfamides Using Molecular Simulations and Experiments

In this paper, we present a synergistic, experimental, and computational study of the self-assembly of N,N'-disubstituted polysulfamides driven by hydrogen bonds (H-bonds) between the H-bonding donor and acceptor groups present in repeating sulfamides as a function of the structural design of the polysulfamide backbone. We developed a coarse-grained (CG) polysulfamide model that captures the directionality of H-bonds between the sulfamide groups and used this model in molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to study the self-assembly of these polymers in implicit solvent. The CGMD approach was validated by reproducing experimentally observed trends in the extent of crystallinity for three polysulfamides synthesized with aliphatic and/or aromatic repeating units. After validation of our CGMD approach, we computationally predicted the effect of repeat unit bulkiness, length, and uniformity of segment lengths in the polymers on the extent of orientational and positional order among the self-assembled polysulfamide chains, providing key design principles for tuning the extent of crystallinity in polysulfamides in experiments. Those computational predictions were then experimentally tested through the synthesis and characterization of polysulfamide architectures.

Multinetwork Elastomer Using Covalent Bond, Hydrogen Bond, and Clay Plane Bond

A high-performance elastomer was obtained by a multinetworking system of a covalent bond, hydrogen bond, and clay plane bond. By taking advantage of the characteristics of each cross-linking, the thermoplastic elastomer shows excellent compression set resistance, good flowability, and high tensile properties. The hydrogen bond gives flowability due to the bond cleavage under heating. The covalent bond contributes to the low compression set by prevention of polymer chain flow. Moreover, the clay plane bond affects the tensile properties by de-localization of the entire cross-link and increase of hysteresis energy between the clay plane surface and other cross-linking points. Furthermore, the self-healing properties and high heat resistance and recyclability were also observed.

Synthesis of unsymmetrical sulfamides and polysulfamides via SuFEx click chemistry

As hydrogen-bond donors and acceptors, N,N'-disubstituted sulfamides have been used in a range of applications from medicinal chemistry to anion-binding catalysis. However, compared to ureas or thioureas, the utilization of this unique moiety remains marginal, in part because of a lack of general synthetic methods to access unsymmetrical sulfamides. Specifically, polysulfamides are a virtually unknown type of polymer despite their potential utility in non-covalent dynamic networks, an intense area of research in materials science. We report herein a practical and efficient process to prepare unsymmetrical sulfamides via Sulfur(vi)-Fluoride Exchange (SuFEx) click chemistry. This process was then applied to synthesize polysulfamides. Thermal analysis showed that this family of polymers possess high thermal stability and tunable glass transition temperatures. Finally, hydrolysis studies indicated that aromatic polysulfamides could be recycled back to their constituting monomers at the end of their life cycle.

Sulfamide chemistry applied to the functionalization of self-assembled monolayers on gold surfaces

Aniline-terminated self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on gold surfaces have successfully reacted with ArSO₂NHOSO₂Ar (Ar = 4-MeC₆H₄ or 4-FC₆H₄) resulting in monolayers with sulfamide moieties and different end groups. Moreover, the sulfamide groups on the SAMs can be hydrolyzed showing the partial regeneration of the aniline surface. SAMs were characterized by water contact angle (WCA) measurements, Fourier-transform infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy (IRRAS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS).

Sulfamide-Lattice Restructuring To Form Dimensionally Controlled Molecular Arrays and Gel-Forming Systems

A design approach that incorporates structural requirements for the formation of a 1D assembly, fibril stability, and fibril-fibril interactions for gelation was attempted by using amino acid-based sulfamides with the general structure Aa-NH-SO₂ -NH-Aa (Aa=amino acid). A preference for 1D assembly alone was not a sufficient condition for gelation, which became evident from studies involving sulfamide esters 1-5. Reducing the crystallization tendency without hindering unidirectional growth was executed through diacids of the sulfamide precursors with various amines that form an envelope around the sulfamide core through salt bridges. This strategy was fruitful, and gels of a wide variety of solvents could be formed by varying the acid and amine components. The use of dodecylamine or benzylamine, which could stabilize the molecular layers through alkyl-chain segregation or π-π interactions improved the gelation tendency, whereas the nature of the amino acid side chain, especially the rotational freedom and hydrophobicity, had a direct role in dictating the solvent preference. Crystallographic studies of these two-component systems gave molecular-level insight into the assembly and showed the importance of anisotropy in the distribution of secondary interactions in gelation.