Transient dormant monomer states for supramolecular polymers with low dispersity

Temporally controlled cooperative and living supramolecular polymerization by the buffered release of monomers has been recently introduced as an important concept towards obtaining monodisperse and multicomponent self-assembled materials. In synthetic, dynamic supramolecular polymers, this requires efficient design strategies for the dormant, inactive states of the monomers to kinetically retard the otherwise spontaneous nucleation process. However, a generalized design principle for the dormant monomer states to expand the scope of precision supramolecular polymers has not been established yet, due to the enormous differences in the mechanism, energetic parameters of self-assembly and monomer exchange dynamics of the diverse class of supramolecular polymers. Here we report the concept of transient dormant states of monomers generated by redox reactions as a predictive general design to achieve monodisperse supramolecular polymers of electronically active, chromophoric or donor-acceptor, monomers. The concept has been demonstrated with charge-transfer supramolecular polymers with an alternating donor-acceptor sequence.