Zeng Rongjin, Gong Zehao, Chen Liang, Yan Qiang
State Key Lab of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China.
ACS Macro Lett. 2020 Aug 18;9(8):1102-1107. doi: 10.1021/acsmacrolett.0c00511. Epub 2020 Jul 21.
Chalcogen bonding is regarded as a form of noncovalent interaction; however, harnessing chalcogen bonds to drive macromolecular self-assembly remains unexplored. Here we report two classes of chalcogen-bonding partner polymers and their unique self-assembly behaviors in THF/HO solution. Using simple poly(4-vinylphenyl chalcogenide) (P4VCh, Ch = Te or Se) as the donor polymer and poly(ethylene oxide)--poly(4-vinylpyridine -oxide) (PEO--P4VO) as the acceptor polymer, they can form donor-acceptor noncovalent complexes and further aggregate into tubular and spherical assemblies through interchain Te···O and Se···O chalcogen-chalcogen interactions. The small distinction in binding affinity of chalcogen bonds can dictate the assembly of different geometries. Moreover, mixing the strong and weak chalcogen-bonding pairs in various ratios can allow us to obtain ergodic phase evolution with tunable dimensionality and morphology.
硫属元素键合被视为一种非共价相互作用形式；然而，利用硫属元素键驱动大分子自组装仍未得到探索。在此，我们报道了两类硫属元素键合伙伴聚合物及其在四氢呋喃/水混合溶液中的独特自组装行为。使用简单的聚（4-乙烯基苯基硫属元素化物）（P4VCh，Ch = Te或Se）作为供体聚合物，聚环氧乙烷-聚（4-乙烯基吡啶氧化物）（PEO-P4VO）作为受体聚合物，它们可以形成供体-受体非共价复合物，并通过链间Te···O和Se···O硫属元素-硫属元素相互作用进一步聚集成管状和球形聚集体。硫属元素键结合亲和力的微小差异可以决定不同几何形状的组装。此外，以不同比例混合强和弱硫属元素键合对可以使我们获得具有可调维度和形态的遍历相演化。
