Redox-controlled structural and temporal programming of donor-acceptor supramolecular nanostructures

Abstract

The urge to obtain precision supramolecular polymers with a control over structure and function, has recently stirred interest in temporally controlled supramolecular polymerization. In this regard, living supramolecular polymerisation has been introduced as a promising strategy which utilizes metastable state as the dormant state for the monomers to control the nucleation process. In this Chapter, the state of the art strategies of temporally controlled supramolecular polymerisation was introduced, addressing both kinetically controlled living supramolecular assembly and transient self-assembly. In this Chapter, it is discussed that, there has been significance advancement in this field, though for highly dynamic systems such as donor-acceptor charge-transfer (CT) polymers, achieving this temporal control via metastable state is difficult as they do not form any kinetically trapped state and remains in the thermodynamic equilibrium. Toward the end of this Chapter, a generic concept of high energy transient dormant state for redox-responsive monomers is proposed which can be created by chemical fuels. This introduction provides a fair background for the upcoming discussion in subsequent Chapters, where the novel design strategies for structural control of supramolecular CT nanostructures and out-of-equilibrium self-assemblies are explored.