Some marine plankton called dinoflagellates emit light in response to the movement of surrounding water, resulting in a phenomenon called milky seas or sea sparkle. The underlying concept, a shear-stress induced permeabilisation of biocatalytic reaction compartments, is transferred to polymer-based nanoreactors. Amphiphilic block copolymers that carry nucleobases in their hydrophobic block are self-assembled into polymersomes. The membrane of the vesicles can be transiently switched between an impermeable and a semipermeable state by shear forces occurring in flow or during turbulent mixing of polymersome dispersions. Nucleobase pairs in the hydrophobic leaflet separate when mechanical force is applied, exposing their hydrogen bonding motifs and therefore making the membrane less hydrophobic and more permeable for water soluble compounds. This polarity switch is used to release payload of the polymersomes on demand, and to activate biocatalytic reactions in the interior of the polymersomes.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7839717PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.202010099DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

shear stress-responsive
4
stress-responsive polymersome
4
polymersome nanoreactors
4
nanoreactors inspired
4
inspired marine
4
marine bioluminescence
4
bioluminescence dinoflagellates
4
dinoflagellates marine
4
marine plankton
4
plankton called
4

Similar Publications

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!