IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v14y2023i1d10.1038_s41467-023-36540-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Bioinspired crowding directs supramolecular polymerisation

Author

Listed:
  • Nils Bäumer

    (Organisch Chemisches Institut)

  • Eduardo Castellanos

    (University of the Balearic Islands)

  • Bartolome Soberats

    (University of the Balearic Islands)

  • Gustavo Fernández

    (Organisch Chemisches Institut)

Abstract

Crowding effects are crucial to maintaining functionality in biological systems, but little is known about their role in analogous artificial counterparts. Within the growing field of supramolecular polymer science, crowding effects have hitherto remained underappreciated. Herein, we show that crowding effects exhibit strong and distinct control over the kinetics, accessible pathways and final outcomes of supramolecular polymerisation processes. In the presence of a pre-formed supramolecular polymer as crowding agent, a model supramolecular polymer dramatically changes its self-assembly behaviour and undergoes a morphological transformation from bundled fibres into flower-like hierarchical assemblies, despite no co-assembly taking place. Notably, this new pathway can only be accessed in crowded environments and when the crowding agent exhibits a one-dimensional morphology. These results allow accessing diverse morphologies and properties in supramolecular polymers and pave the way towards a better understanding of high-precision self-assembly in nature.

Suggested Citation

  • Nils Bäumer & Eduardo Castellanos & Bartolome Soberats & Gustavo Fernández, 2023. "Bioinspired crowding directs supramolecular polymerisation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-36540-x
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-36540-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-36540-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-023-36540-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kichitaro Nakajima & Keiichi Yamaguchi & Masahiro Noji & César Aguirre & Kensuke Ikenaka & Hideki Mochizuki & Lianjie Zhou & Hirotsugu Ogi & Toru Ito & Ichiei Narita & Fumitake Gejyo & Hironobu Naiki , 2022. "Macromolecular crowding and supersaturation protect hemodialysis patients from the onset of dialysis-related amyloidosis," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-13, December.
    2. Sougata Datta & Yasuki Kato & Seiya Higashiharaguchi & Keisuke Aratsu & Atsushi Isobe & Takuho Saito & Deepak D. Prabhu & Yuichi Kitamoto & Martin J. Hollamby & Andrew J. Smith & Robert Dalgliesh & Na, 2020. "Self-assembled poly-catenanes from supramolecular toroidal building blocks," Nature, Nature, vol. 583(7816), pages 400-405, July.
    3. Tom F. A. de Greef & E. W. Meijer, 2008. "Supramolecular polymers," Nature, Nature, vol. 453(7192), pages 171-173, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Francisco Rey- Tarrío & Emilio Quiñoá & Gustavo Fernández & Félix Freire, 2023. "Multi-chiral materials comprising metallosupramolecular and covalent helical polymers containing five axial motifs within a helix," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-8, December.
    2. Joseph F. Woods & Lucía Gallego & Amira Maisch & Dominik Renggli & Corrado Cuocci & Olivier Blacque & Gunther Steinfeld & Andres Kaech & Bernhard Spingler & Andreas Vargas Jentzsch & Michel Rickhaus, 2023. "Saddles as rotational locks within shape-assisted self-assembled nanosheets," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    3. Srinu Kotha & Rahul Sahu & Aditya Chandrakant Yadav & Preeti Sharma & B. V. V. S. Pavan Kumar & Sandeep K. Reddy & Kotagiri Venkata Rao, 2024. "Noncovalent synthesis of homo and hetero-architectures of supramolecular polymers via secondary nucleation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-36540-x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.