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Directed Assembly of Elastin-like Proteins into defined Supramolecular Structures and Cargo Encapsulation In Vitro
Published on: April 8, 2020
A Photoinduced Reversible Phase Transition in a Dipeptide Supramolecular Assembly
Xianbao Li1,2, Jinbo Fei1, Youqian Xu1,2
1Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (BNLMS), CAS Key Lab of Colloid, Interface and Chemical Thermodynamics, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China.
Abstract:
Tunable supramolecular assembly has found various applications in biomedicine, molecular catalysis, optoelectronics, and nanofabrication. Unlike traditional covalent conjugation, non-covalent introduction of a photoswitchable moiety enables reversible photomodulation of non-photosensitive dipeptide supramolecular assembly. Under light illumination, a long-lived photoacid generator releases a proton and mediates the dissociation of dipeptide-based organogel, thereby resulting in sol formation. Under darkness, the photoswitchable moiety entraps a proton, resulting in gel regeneration. Furthermore, accompanying the isothermal recycled gel-sol transition in a spatially controlled manner, renewable patterns are spontaneously fabricated. This new concept of light-controlled phase transition of amino acid-based supramolecular assemblies will open up the possibility of wide applications.
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