Title
Self-assembled Nanohelix from a Bolaamphiphilic Diacetylene via Hydrogelation and Selective Responsiveness towards Amino Acids and Nucleobases
Author
Yan Meng, Jian Jiang, Minghua Liu
Year
2017
Journal
Nanoscale
Abstract
A bolaamphiphile with diacteylene mesogen unit and L-glutamic acid as the terminal group was newly designed and their self-assembly was investigated. The compound formed hydrogels with water upon heating and cooling process. The asformed gel could be switched into dispersion upon mechanical shaking. Both the gel and the water dispersion undergo polymerization upon UV irradiation. However, while the gel turned into blue and then purple red color, the dispersion turned into red one directly. Upon AFM and SEM observations, it was found that nanohelix was formed in the as-prepared gel and polymerized blue gels, while nanobelt was formed from the water dispersion. The blue nanohelix was stable but showed selective response to certain amino acids and nucleobases. It was found that the blue gel underwent shrinkage when reacting with charged amino acids such as Glu, Asp, Lys, Arg and His. In the shrunk gel, the solution phase further turned into pink in the case of His and Arg. In addition, the blue gel showed also shrinkage and color change when reacting with cytosine.
Instrument
J-810
Keywords
Circular dichroism, Materials, Biochemistry