Supramolecular chemistry articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Despite its application in functional materials, covalent peptide modification and controlling peptide self-assembly remains challenging. Here the authors report a programmable supramolecular peptide by pillararene-based noncovalent interactions with multiple self-assembly morphologies and application in PDT.

    • Huangtianzhi Zhu
    • , Huanhuan Wang
    •  & Feihe Huang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Construction of hierarchical nanostructures is important in material science, but precise morphological control remains a challenge. Here, the authors report a one-pot in-situ initiation-growth process from a liquid crystalline block copolymer to precisely control the morphology and dimensions of hierarchical nanostructures.

    • Bixin Jin
    • , Koki Sano
    •  & Xiaoyu Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding the phase behavior of charged block copolymers may potentially lead to unexplored self-assembled morphologies. Here, the authors report the preparation of ion-containing diblock copolymers featuring a superlattice state varying between disordered and lamellar morphologies depending on the charge density.

    • Jimin Shim
    • , Frank S. Bates
    •  & Timothy P. Lodge

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Photoresponsive molecular capsules that can be used in water are rare. Here, the authors construct polyaromatic nanocapsules via self-assembly from photoswitch-bearing amphiphilic molecules in water. Light induces a structural change in the amphiphiles, triggering the capsule to disassemble into monomers and release encapsulated guests.

    • Lorenzo Catti
    • , Natsuki Kishida
    •  & Michito Yoshizawa

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Injectable hydrogels have gained significant interest; yet, due to high viscosity, many are unsuitable for catheter delivery. Here, the authors report on cyclic peptides with low viscosity for catheter delivery, which form self-assembled peptide hydrogels following enzymatic cleavage and demonstrated delivery in vivo.

    • Andrea S. Carlini
    • , Roberto Gaetani
    •  & Nathan C. Gianneschi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Natural leaves can purify water under sunlight through a combination of osmotic pressure, transpiration, and guttation effects. Here the authors design a composite material mimicking these combined effects, achieving sunlight-driven pure water production from brine with high collection rate.

    • Hongya Geng
    • , Qiang Xu
    •  & Chun Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In this paper, the authors study the temperature-controlled dynamic behavior of a system of nanocubes self-assembled from two different building blocks. Non-intuitively, the disordered, equilibrium state (a mixture of heteroleptic cubes) and the ordered, out-of-equilibrium state (a mixture of homoleptic cubes) are cycled by heating and subsequent rapid cooling.

    • Yi-Yang Zhan
    • , Tatsuo Kojima
    •  & Shuichi Hiraoka

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Deracemization is a powerful method which allows transformation of racemic mixtures into excess enantiomer, but was applied only to small chiral molecular systems so far. Here the authors report deracemization of a kinetically stable bisporphyrin helicate upon encapsulation of chiral aromatic guests.

    • Naoki Ousaka
    • , Shinya Yamamoto
    •  & Eiji Yashima

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The supra-amphiphiles spontaneously assemble to well-defined nanostructures but control of shape and size of supramolecular nanostructures is still a great challenge. Here the authors demonstrate control over shape and size of self-assemblies by using the recognition motifs of an amphiphilic porphyrin

    • Shu-Ping Wang
    • , Wei Lin
    •  & Shijun Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Self-assembly in nature is dynamic and exists in out-of-equilibrium state and thus systems have the ability to autonomously respond to environmental changes. Here the authors report that input of thermal energy can trigger fixed, artificial toroids to spontaneously nucleate helical growth.

    • Bowen Shen
    • , Youliang Zhu
    •  & Myongsoo Lee

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Non-equilibrium systems of immiscible liquids have significant potential to advance different technologies, but control over morphology or functionality remains unexplored. Here, the authors demonstrate an all-liquid fluidic device by exploiting surfactant assemblies to produce a semi-permeable membrane between the liquids.

    • Wenqian Feng
    • , Yu Chai
    •  & Brett A. Helms

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Self-assembly of DNA origami is a complex folding problem without a unified view of the energetic factors involved. Here the authors analyse identical structures that differ by nucleotide sequence and identify how mechanical stress at nucleation sites shapes the energy landscape.

    • Richard Kosinski
    • , Ann Mukhortava
    •  & Barbara Saccà

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding how simple chemical mixtures transition into truly emergent systems is essential to create new lifelike materials. Here, the authors show a self-replicating system that can be maintained out-of-equilibrium by an oxidant fuel in analogy to simple metabolic cycles.

    • Sarah M. Morrow
    • , Ignacio Colomer
    •  & Stephen P. Fletcher

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Formation of biological filaments via intracellular supramolecular polymerization of proteins occurs under programmable and spatiotemporal control to maintain integrity. Here the authors devise a bioinspired isothermal chain-growth approach to programmably copolymerize DNA hairpin tiles into 1D nanofilaments.

    • Honglu Zhang
    • , Yu Wang
    •  & Chunhai Fan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Molecules that can switch between multiple stable states in response to stimuli are promising for many applications, but are challenging to construct. Here, the authors design a resorcinarene switching manifold with multiple oxidation states and coupled charge-transfer states, which can access up to five distinct switch-states with unique optical outputs.

    • Daniel T. Payne
    • , Whitney A. Webre
    •  & Jonathan P. Hill

  • Article
    | Open Access

    For interlocking ring structures, knot theory predicts that the number of topologically different links increases with ring and crossing number. Here, the authors use a peptide folding-and-assembly strategy to selectively realize two highly entangled catenanes with 4 rings and 12 crossings, representing two of the 100 predicted topologies with this complexity.

    • Tomohisa Sawada
    • , Ami Saito
    •  & Makoto Fujita

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The halogen bond is well known for its ability to assemble supramolecules. Here, using NMR experiments, the authors reveal the role of these bonds in dynamic processes, finding that the halogen bond directly catalyzes dynamical rotation in solid cocrystals by reducing the associated energy barrier.

    • Patrick M. J. Szell
    • , Scott Zablotny
    •  & David L. Bryce

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Double helix structures appear widely in nature, but only rarely in synthetic non-chiral macromolecules. Here the authors describe a double helix in a densely charged aromatic polyamide, which exhibits an axial rigidity persistence length of ~ 1 μm, much higher than that of DNA (~ 50 nm).

    • Ying Wang
    • , Yadong He
    •  & Louis A. Madsen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The search for porous materials with strong Brønsted acid sites for challenging chemical reactions has been of significant interest, but remains challenging. Here the authors report a cage extension strategy to construct chiral permanent porous hydrogen-bonded frameworks with strong Brønsted acid groups for heterogeneous asymmetric catalysis.

    • Wei Gong
    • , Dandan Chu
    •  & Yan Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The structures of fullerenes, or buckyballs, are often very difficult to resolve. Here, the authors describe a decapyrrylcorannulene host with ten flexible pyrryl groups that can efficiently co-crystallize with diverse fullerene derivatives in a ‘hand-ball-hand’ fashion, allowing crystallographic identification of commonly known types of fullerenes.

    • Yun-Yan Xu
    • , Han-Rui Tian
    •  & Lan-Sun Zheng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Temporal control over self-assembly processes is a desirable trait for discovering adaptable and controllable materials. Here the authors show that a chemical fuel driven system can not only self-assemble in a controlled manner, but can also result in precise control over the assembly and disassembly kinetics.

    • Ankit Jain
    • , Shikha Dhiman
    •  & Subi J. George

  • Article
    | Open Access

    While many processes in biological cells can be understood in terms of molecular logic gates that process information sequentially and combinationally, the design and construction of such devices in the laboratory are unknown. Here the authors achieve this by the reversibly-controlled capture and release of guest molecules from host containers.

    • Brian Daly
    • , Thomas S. Moody
    •  & A. Prasanna de Silva

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Halogen bonding can be exploited for the design of functional supramolecular materials, but heavier elements that are known to accept a halogen bond remain limited. Here, the authors demonstrate the formation of two-component cocrystals based on halogen bonds with phosphorus, arsenic and antimony.

    • Katarina Lisac
    • , Filip Topić
    •  & Dominik Cinčić

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hierarchical non-intertwined ring-in-ring complexes are intriguing but challenging supramolecular targets. Here, the authors describe a box-in-box assembly based on radical-pairing interactions between two rigid diradical dicationic cyclophanes; the inner box can further accommodate guests to form Russian doll-like assemblies.

    • Kang Cai
    • , Mark C. Lipke
    •  & J. Fraser Stoddart

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding how nanoparticle superstructures respond to external stimuli is of importance to their potential application. Here, the authors demonstrate the use of cryo-transmission electron microscopy for monitoring and manipulating movement within nanoparticle-loaded dendrimicelle superstructure thin films upon irradiation with an electron beam.

    • Jan Bart ten Hove
    • , Fijs W. B. van Leeuwen
    •  & Aldrik H. Velders

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Adapting the cavity of a coordination capsule generally involves the addition or removal of subcomponents. Here, the authors report two vanadium-organic coordination nanocapsules with the same number of components but variable cavity sizes—an expanded ball and contracted octahedron—whose solvent-controlled interconversion is attributed to the versatile coordination geometry of the vanadium centers.

    • Kongzhao Su
    • , Mingyan Wu
    •  & Maochun Hong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Molecular tessellations of complex tilings are difficult to design and construct. Here, the authors show that molecular tessellations can be formed from a single building block that gives rise to two distinct supramolecular phases, whose self-similar subdomains serve as tiles in the periodic tessellations.

    • Fang Cheng
    • , Xue-Jun Wu
    •  & Kian Ping Loh

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Coordination-driven supramolecular assembly provides the ability to build molecular architectures of impressive complexity. Here, the authors use a series of linear metal-organic ligands with specific sequences to construct multiple generations of precisely-controlled, 2D fractal polycyclic supramolecules.

    • Bo Song
    • , Sneha Kandapal
    •  & Xiaopeng Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Induced-fit binding, common in biological systems, is still relatively rare in artificial hosts. Here, the authors assemble a molecular cube from six gear-shaped faces, whose interdigitated design allows the cube to expand and contract in response to the size, shape, and charge of a guest molecule.

    • Yi-Yang Zhan
    • , Tatsuo Kojima
    •  & Shuichi Hiraoka

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Molecular shuttles are bi-stable and stimuli-responsive systems that are considered potential elements for molecular machinery. Here, the authors use optical tweezers to measure the force dependent real-time kinetics of individual molecular shuttles under aqueous conditions.

    • Teresa Naranjo
    • , Kateryna M. Lemishko
    •  & Borja Ibarra

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Magnetically induced phase behaviour in a soft matter system is of potential interest for magneto-responsive compounds. Here the authors fabricate a discotic ionic liquid crystalline hybrid material which can be switched from orthorhombic to cubic phase in the absence or presence of a strong magnetic field.

    • Fatin Hajjaj
    • , Takashi Kajitani
    •  & Takanori Fukushima

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Supramolecular containers are promising enzyme mimics, but they currently accommodate only a limited range of chemical transformations. Here, the authors describe coordination cages that catalyze two-component cascade reactions without relying on an external or encapsulated catalytic species.

    • Jingjing Jiao
    • , Zijian Li
    •  & Yong Cui

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Molecular capsules typically bind only guests with volumes smaller than their cavities. Here, the authors find that a polyaromatic capsule accommodates linear amphiphilic oligomers in a length-dependent manner, whereas short chains are fully crammed into the cavity, long chains can be incorporated into the capsule in a threaded fashion.

    • Masahiro Yamashina
    • , Shunsuke Kusaba
    •  & Michito Yoshizawa

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Constructing nanoparticle assemblies with atomic precision remains a major challenge in nanoscience. Here, the authors realize atomic‐level control over the 1D, 2D and hierarchical 3D assembly of Au nanoparticles by modulating the site‐specific surface ligands and associated counterions.

    • Qi Li
    • , Jake C. Russell
    •  & Rongchao Jin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chirality transfer by chemical self-assembly has been studied intensively for years but chirality transfers along the same path remains elusive. Here the authors use a multiscale chemo-mechanical model to elucidate the mechanism underlying the chirality transfer via self-assembly in hierarchical camphorsulfonic acid doped polyaniline.

    • Yang Yang
    • , Jie Liang
    •  & Zhixiang Wei

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The weak and directional CH-π hydrogen bond has rarely been exploited in the design of supramolecular complexes and molecular machinery. Here, the authors construct a bowl-in-tube complex stabilized solely by concyclic CH-π hydrogen bonds, and show that the guest exhibits single-axis rotational motion despite tight association with the host.

    • Taisuke Matsuno
    • , Masahiro Fujita
    •  & Hiroyuki Isobe

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A possible route to producing processable soft materials is by assembling metal organic cubes into hydrogels. Here the authors show charge-assisted H-bond driven self-assembly of Ga3+-based anionic metal organic cubes and suitable molecular binders towards multi-functional hydrogels.

    • Papri Sutar
    • , Venkata M. Suresh
    •  & Tapas Kumar Maji

  • Article
    | Open Access

    One of the most dramatic effects of supramolecular assembly is the generation of homochirality in near-racemic systems. Here the authors rationalize the chiral amplification mechanism with a combined scanning tunneling microscopy and modelling study of surface-grown enantiomerically unbalanced supramolecular bilayers.

    • Hai Cao
    •  & Steven De Feyter

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Quantum confined (QC) materials have favorable photoluminescent properties, yet are less bioavailable. Here, the authors developed aromatic cyclo-dipeptides that assemble into quantum dots and organize into biocompatible QC supramolecular structures suitable for in vivo imaging and optoelectronics.

    • Kai Tao
    • , Zhen Fan
    •  & Junbai Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mechanically interlocked molecules are extensively applied as artificial molecular machines but rotaxane-branched dendrimers are rarely explored because of synthetic challenges. Here the authors present the construction of dual stimuli-responsive rotaxane-branched dendrimer which can be stimulated by DMSO or acetate ions.

    • Xu-Qing Wang
    • , Wei Wang
    •  & Hai-Bo Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Complex assembly pathways often involve transient, partly-formed intermediates that are challenging to characterize. Here, the authors present a simple and rapid spectroscopic thermal hysteresis method for mapping the energy landscapes of supramolecular assembly.

    • Robert W. Harkness V
    • , Nicole Avakyan
    •  & Anthony K. Mittermaier

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Molecules exhibiting Möbius topology are fascinating but challenging synthetic targets. Here, the authors report the elegant synthesis and crystal structure of a catenane formed from two fully conjugated, interlocked Möbius nanohoops, and use theoretical calculations to understand its conformational stability and aromaticity.

    • Yang-Yang Fan
    • , Dandan Chen
    •  & Huan Cong

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