Polymeric partners breathe together: using gas to direct polymer self-assembly via gas-bridging chemistry

作     者：Zehao Gong Yixin Wang Qiang Yan Zehao Gong;Yixin Wang;Qiang Yan

作者机构：State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of PolymersDepartment of Macromolecular ScienceFudan University200433China 

出 版 物：《Science China Chemistry》 (中国科学（化学英文版）)

年 卷 期：2022年第65卷第7期

页      面：1401-1410页

核心收录：

学科分类：08[工学] 0805[工学-材料科学与工程（可授工学、理学学位）] 080502[工学-材料学] 

基　　金：supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21674022, 51703034) the National Defense Science and Technology Innovation Zone (163 Program) the Shanghai Rising-Star Program (19QA1400700) 

主　　题：gas-bridging bond Lewis pair polymer dynamic covalent chemistry self-assembly tunable nanostructure 

摘      要：The quest for a general and facile way to regulate polymer self-assembled nanostructures with low-to high-order ergodicity is an eternal theme in soft nanoparticle fabrication. Here we present an unprecedented gas-bridging strategy that allows to use gas to direct polymer self-assembly in continuous and tunable manners. Such system comprises a partner of frustrated Lewis polymers with bulky Lewis acid and base groups. They can together “breathe in external gases to form gas-bridged structures between the two complementary moieties, which drive their mutual complexation and assemble into polymer nanoparticles of diverse geometries and dimensionalities. This strategy is applicable to a broad family of gas substances including but not limited to carbon oxides, nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, and even olefins;moreover, tailoring gas types and levels can dictate distinct assembling evolutionary pathways and deformable behaviors among spherical, fibrous, polymersomal, tubesomal and cubosomal morphologies. We also discover that the gas-based bonding chemistry is the mechanistic basis underlying the phase transitional control and phase window regulation. This will open a new direction of making bespoke polymer nanostructures with gas.