Subnanometer Diameter Control in Nanotubes Self-Assembled via Consecutive Cyclization - Polymerization Processes.

Tubular self-assembled architectures are highly appealing supramolecular objects that participate in diverse essential biological processes. Controlling with precision their dimensions, and in particular their pore diameter, is a key objective to develop the full applied potential of these structures. Here, using a strategy that relies on the controlled supramolecular polymerization of Watson-Crick H-bonded macrocycles, we target the assembly of 3 sets of nanotubes in which pore diameter is finely controlled from 1.

Self-Assembly of Chemically Programmed Amphiphiles into Aqueous Nanotubes with a Lipophilic Lumen.

The creation of complex hollow nanostructures with precise control over size and shape represents a great challenge in supramolecular soft materials. Here, we have further developed a bioinspired methodology for the formation of aqueous nanotubes of well-defined dimensions and pore coating through the self-assembly of amphiphiles that are chemically programmed with complementary nucleobases. These nanotubes are endowed with a hydrophobic lumen, whose diameter can be expanded as a function of the monomer length, in which apolar dyes can be efficiently encapsulated.

Stacked or Folded? Impact of Chelate Cooperativity on the Self-Assembly Pathway to Helical Nanotubes from Dinucleobase Monomers.

Self-assembled nanotubes exhibit impressive biological functions that have always inspired supramolecular scientists in their efforts to develop strategies to build such structures from small molecules through a bottom-up approach. One of these strategies employs molecules endowed with self-recognizing motifs at the edges, which can undergo either cyclization-stacking or folding-polymerization processes that lead to tubular architectures. Which of these self-assembly pathways is ultimately selected by these molecules is, however, often difficult to predict and even to evaluate experimentally.