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Controlling and imaging biomimetic self-assembly

Nature Chemistry volume 8, pages 10–15 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

The self-assembly of chemical entities represents a very attractive way to create a large variety of ordered functional structures and complex matter. Although much effort has been devoted to the preparation of supramolecular nanostructures based on different chemical building blocks, an understanding of the mechanisms at play and the ability to monitor assembly processes and, in turn, control them are often elusive, which precludes a deep and comprehensive control of the final structures. Here the complex supramolecular landscape of a platinum(II) compound is characterized fully and controlled successfully through a combination of supramolecular and photochemical approaches. The supramolecular assemblies comprise two kinetic assemblies and their thermodynamic counterpart. The monitoring of the different emission properties of the aggregates, used as a fingerprint for each species, allows the real-time visualization of the evolving self-assemblies. The control of multiple supramolecular pathways will help the design of complex systems in and out of their thermodynamic equilibrium.

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Figure 1: Illustration of the landscape of the supramolecular self-assemblies of complex 1.
Figure 2: Kinetic and thermodynamic study of the assemblies using photophysical techniques.
Figure 3: Snapshots taken from Supplementary Movies 1 and 2.
Figure 4: Supramolecular polymerization of assembly A initiated by the addition of seeds of C.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the University of Strasbourg and the CNRS for financial support. L.D.C. is grateful to the Région Alsace and the Communauté Urbaine de Strasbourg for the award of a Gutenberg Excellence Chair (2011–2012) and to AXA Research funds. We gratefully acknowledge the Fondation CIRFC (Université de Strasbourg), the Région Alsace, the Communauté Urbaine de Strasbourg, the Département du Bas-Rhin and the Ministère de l'Enseignement Supérieur de la Recherche for funding the purchase of the confocal microscope. P. Samorí is gratefully acknowledged for the use of the temperature-dependent UV-vis spectrophotometer. We thank L. Maggini for SEM images, D. Septiady for some help with the confocal microscope and D. Genovese for helpful discussions. E. W. Meijer is gratefully acknowledged for enlightening discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ISIS and icFRC, Université de Strasbourg and CNRS, 8 rue Gaspard Monge, Strasbourg, 67000, France

    Alessandro Aliprandi, Matteo Mauro & Luisa De Cola

  2. University of Strasbourg Institute for Advanced Study (USIAS), 5 allée du Général Rouvillois, Strasbourg, 67083, France

    Matteo Mauro

  3. Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT), Institut für Nanotechnologie, Hermann-von-Helmholtz-Platz 1, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, D-76344, Germany

    Luisa De Cola

Authors
  1. Alessandro Aliprandi
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Contributions

The synthesis was performed by A.A., spectroscopic and confocal microscopy experiments were designed, realized and interpreted by A.A. under the supervision of M.M. and L.D.C., and A.A., M.M. and L.D.C. wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Matteo Mauro or Luisa De Cola.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Supplementary information (PDF 1135 kb)

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Supplementary Movie 1 (AVI 92823 kb)

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Supplementary Movie 3 (AVI 77204 kb)

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Aliprandi, A., Mauro, M. & De Cola, L. Controlling and imaging biomimetic self-assembly. Nature Chem 8, 10–15 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.2383

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