3 research outputs found
Right- and Left-Handed Helices, What is in between? Interconversion of Helical Structures of Alternating Pyridinedicarboxamide/<i>m</i>‑(phenylazo)azobenzene Oligomers
Some unnatural polymers/oligomers have been designed
to adopt a
well-defined, compact, three-dimensional folding capability. Azobenzene
units are common linkages in these oligomer designs. Two alternating
pyridinedicarboxamide/<i>m</i>-(phenylazo)Âazobenzene oligomers
that can fold into both right- and left-handed helices were studied
computationally in order to understand their dynamical properties.
Helical structures were shown to be the global minima among the many
different conformations generated from the Monte Carlo simulations,
and extended conformations have higher potential energies than compact
ones. To understand the interconversion process between right- and
left-handed helices, replica-exchange molecular dynamic (REMD) simulations
were performed on both oligomers, and with this method, both right-
and left-handed helices were successfully sampled during the simulations.
REMD trajectories revealed twisted conformations as intermediate structures
in the interconversion pathway between the two helical forms of these
azobenzene oligomers. This mechanism was observed in both oligomers
in current study and occurred locally in the larger oligomer. This
discovery indicates that the interconversion between helical structures
with different handedness goes through a compact and partially folded
structure instead of globally unfold and extended structure. This
is also verified by the nudged elastic band (NEB) calculations. The
temperature weighted histogram analysis method (T-WHAM) was applied
on the REMD results to generate contour maps of the potential of mean
force (PMF). Analysis showed that right- and left-handed helices are
equally sampled in these REMD simulations. In large oligomers, both
right- and left-handed helices can be adopted by different parts of
the molecule simultaneously. The interconversion between two helical
forms can occur in the middle of the helical structure and not necessarily
at the termini of the oligomer
Self-Assembly of a Donor–Acceptor Nanotube. A Strategy To Create Bicontinuous Arrays
The self-assembly of bolaamphiphile <b>1</b> into nanotubes containing a nanostructured electron donor/acceptor heterojunction is reported. In 10% MeOH/H<sub>2</sub>O, the tetraphenylporphyrin (TPP) and 1,4,5,8-naphthalenetetracarboxylic acid diimide chromophores engage in strong <i>J</i>-type π–π interactions within monolayer rings that further stack into the nanotube assemblies. In 10% MeOH/H<sub>2</sub>O at pH 1 or 11 or in pure MeOH, assembly is driven exclusively by the TPP ring, leading to the formation of nonspecific, unstructured aggregates. Steady-state, time-resolved fluorescence and femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy revealed a strong dependence of the fluorescence decay and electron-transfer/charge-recombination time constants on the nature of the assemblies. These studies highlight the importance of local nanostructure in determining the photophysical properties of optoelectronic materials
Strategy for the Co-Assembly of Co-Axial Nanotube–Polymer Hybrids
Nanostructured materials
having multiple, discrete domains of sorted
components are particularly important to create efficient optoelectronics.
The construction of multicomponent nanostructures from self-assembled
components is exceptionally challenging due to the propensity of noncovalent
materials to undergo structural reorganization in the presence of
excipient polymers. This work demonstrates that polymer–nanotube
composites comprised of a self-assembled nanotube wrapped with two
conjugated polymers could be assembled using a layer-by-layer approach.
The polymer–nanotube nanostructures arrange polymer layers
coaxially on the nanotube surface. Femtosecond transient absorption
(TA) studies indicated that the polymer–nanotube composites
undergo photoinduced charge separation upon excitation of the NDI
chromophore within the nanotube