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Updated: Apr 1, 2026
Self-assembling Morphologies Obtained from Helical Polycarbodiimide Copolymers and Their Triazole Derivatives
Published on: February 7, 2017
Polymorphic transformation towards formation of nanotubes by self-assembly of an achiral molecule
Shuai Wang1, Yajun Zhang1, Yijun Xia1
1Suzhou Key Laboratory of Macromolecular Design and Precision Synthesis, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Polymer Design and Application, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China. songbo@suda.edu.cn.
Abstract:
In this paper, nanotubes with a uniform diameter were prepared by self-assembly of an achiral azobenzene-containing fatty acid. The polymorphic transformation of the assemblies during the cooling process was systematically studied. By controlling the incubation temperature, different morphologies, such as membranes, stripes, helical ribbons and tubes, were all obtained in our experiment. These elements were all predicted by Selinger et al. in the theoretical model of the formation of nanotubes. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first experimental example to fully support their theory.
