Magnetic control of self-assembly and disassembly in organic materials.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 37248227.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-023-38846-2 and PMC identifier 10227084.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Because organic molecules and materials are generally insensitive or weakly sensitive to magnetic fields, a certain means to enhance their magnetic responsiveness needs to be exploited. Here we show a strategy to amplify the magnetic responsiveness of self-assembled peptide nanostructures by synergistically combining the concepts of perfect α-helix and rod-coil supramolecular building blocks. Firstly, we develop a monomeric, nonpolar, and perfect α-helix (MNP-helix). Then, we employ the MNP-helix as the rod block of rod-coil amphiphiles (rod-coils) because rod-coils are well-suited for fabricating responsive assemblies. We show that the self-assembly processes of the designed rod-coils and disassembly of rod-coil/DNA complexes can be controlled in a magnetically responsive manner using the relatively weak magnetic field provided by the ordinary neodymium magnet [0.07 ~ 0.25 Tesla (T)]. These results demonstrate that magnetically responsive organic assemblies usable under practical conditions can be realized by using rod-coil supramolecular building blocks containing constructively organized diamagnetic moieties.