Li Minmin, Qing Guangyan, Xiong Yuting, Lai Yuekun, Sun Taolei
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, 122 Luoshi Road, Wuhan 430070, P. R. China.
College of Textile and Clothing Engineering, Soochow University, 199 Ren'ai Road, Suzhou 215123, P. R. China.
Sci Rep. 2015 Oct 29;5:15742. doi: 10.1038/srep15742.
Life systems have evolved to utilize weak noncovalent interactions, particularly CH-π interaction, to achieve various biofunctions, for example cellular communication, immune response, and protein folding. However, for artificial materials, it remains a great challenge to recognize such weak interaction, further transform it into tunable macroscopic properties and realize special functions. Here we integrate monosaccharide-based CH-π receptor capable of recognizing aromatic peptides into a smart polymer with three-component "Recognition-Mediating-Function" design, and report the CH-π interaction driven surface property switching on smart polymer film, including wettability, adhesion, viscoelasticity and stiffness. Detailed studies indicate that, the CH-π interaction induces the complexation between saccharide unit and aromatic peptide, which breaks the initial amphiphilic balance of the polymer network, resulting in contraction-swelling conformational transition for polymer chains and subsequent dramatic switching in surface properties. This work not only presents a new approach to control the surface property of materials, but also points to a broader research prospect on CH-π interaction at a macroscopic level.
生命系统已经进化到利用弱非共价相互作用，特别是CH-π相互作用，来实现各种生物功能，例如细胞通讯、免疫反应和蛋白质折叠。然而，对于人工材料而言，识别这种弱相互作用、进一步将其转化为可调节的宏观性质并实现特殊功能仍然是一个巨大的挑战。在此，我们将能够识别芳香族肽的基于单糖的CH-π受体整合到具有“识别-介导-功能”三组分设计的智能聚合物中，并报道了CH-π相互作用驱动的智能聚合物薄膜表面性质切换，包括润湿性、粘附性、粘弹性和硬度。详细研究表明，CH-π相互作用诱导糖单元与芳香族肽之间的络合，这打破了聚合物网络最初的两亲平衡，导致聚合物链发生收缩-膨胀构象转变，进而使表面性质发生显著切换。这项工作不仅提出了一种控制材料表面性质的新方法，还指出了在宏观层面上CH-π相互作用更广阔的研究前景。
