Christopher D. Jones
Braiding, branching and chiral amplification of nanofibres in supramolecular gels
Jones, Christopher D.; Simmons, Henry T.D.; Horner, Kate E.; Liu, Kaiqiang; Thompson, Richard L.; Steed, Jonathan W.
Authors
Henry T.D. Simmons
Kate E. Horner
Kaiqiang Liu
Dr Richard Thompson r.l.thompson@durham.ac.uk
Associate Professor
Professor Jonathan Steed jon.steed@durham.ac.uk
Professor
Abstract
Helical nanofibres play key roles in many biological processes. Entanglements between helices can aid gelation by producing thick, interconnected fibres, but the details of this process are poorly understood. Here, we describe the assembly of an achiral oligo(urea) peptidomimetic compound into supramolecular helices. Aggregation of adjacent helices leads to the formation of fibrils, which further intertwine to produce high-fidelity braids with periodic crossing patterns. A braid theory analysis suggests that braiding is governed by rigid topological constraints, and that branching occurs due to crossing defects in the developing braids. Mixed-chirality helices assemble into relatively complex, odd-stranded braids, but can also form helical bundles by undergoing inversions of chirality. The oligo(urea) assemblies are also highly sensitive to chiral amplification, proposed to occur through a majority-rules mechanism, whereby trace chiral materials can promote the formation of gels containing only homochiral helices.
Citation
Jones, C. D., Simmons, H. T., Horner, K. E., Liu, K., Thompson, R. L., & Steed, J. W. (2019). Braiding, branching and chiral amplification of nanofibres in supramolecular gels. Nature Chemistry, 11, 375-381. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-019-0222-0
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Jan 23, 2019 |
Online Publication Date | Mar 4, 2019 |
Publication Date | Mar 4, 2019 |
Deposit Date | Mar 14, 2019 |
Publicly Available Date | Sep 4, 2019 |
Journal | Nature Chemistry |
Print ISSN | 1755-4330 |
Electronic ISSN | 1755-4349 |
Publisher | Nature Research |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 11 |
Pages | 375-381 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-019-0222-0 |
Public URL | https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1306333 |
Files
Accepted Journal Article
(1 Mb)
PDF
You might also like
Scrolling in Supramolecular Gels: A Designer’s Guide
(2024)
Journal Article
Pushing Technique Boundaries to Probe Conformational Polymorphism.
(2023)
Journal Article
Metal-based gels: Synthesis, properties, and applications
(2023)
Journal Article
Vapor Sorption and Halogen-Bond-Induced Solid-Form Rearrangement of a Porous Pharmaceutical
(2023)
Journal Article
Highly Thermally Resistant Bisamide Gelators as Pharmaceutical Crystallization Media
(2022)
Journal Article