Longitudinal zipping/unzipping of self-assembled organic tubes

Stimuli-responsive organic tubes are an attractive supramolecular assembly which has potential applications as a controlled release vehicle. We synthesize a smart organic tube by the coassembly of lithocholic acid (LCA) and taurolithocholic acid (TLCA) in aqueous solution. The coassembled LCA/TLCA tubes can be longitudinally unzipped into flat sheets by capillary force after being dehydrated on substrates. Consequently, the encapsulated guest molecules are released from the unzipping tubes. After the release of guest molecules, the flat sheets can be zipped back into hollow tubes upon hydration with aqueous solution. The zipping/unzipping LCA/TLCA tubes provide a new type of delivery vehicles, which may have potential for surface decontaminations.