Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Pathway complexity in fibre assembly: from liquid crystals to hyper-helical gelmorphs.

Contreras-Montoya, Rafael; Smith, James P; Boothroyd, Stephen C; Aguilar, Juan A; Mirzamani, Marzieh; Screen, Martin A; Yufit, Dmitry S; Robertson, Mark; He, Lilin; Qian, Shuo; Kumari, Harshita; Steed, Jonathan W; Contreras-Montoya, Rafael; Smith, James P; Boothroyd, Stephen C; Mirzamani, Marzieh; Screen, Martin A; Yufit, Dmitry S; Robertson, Mark; He, Lilin

Authors

Rafael Contreras-Montoya

James P Smith

Stephen C Boothroyd

Marzieh Mirzamani

Martin A Screen

Dmitry S Yufit

Mark Robertson

Lilin He

Shuo Qian

Harshita Kumari

Rafael Contreras-Montoya

James P Smith

Stephen C Boothroyd

Marzieh Mirzamani

Martin A Screen

Dmitry S Yufit

Mark Robertson

Lilin He



Abstract

Pathway complexity results in unique materials from the same components according to the assembly conditions. Here a chiral acyl-semicarbazide gelator forms three different gels of contrasting fibre morphology (termed 'gelmorphs') as well as lyotropic liquid crystalline droplets depending on the assembly pathway. The gels have morphologies that are either hyperhelical (HH-Gel), tape-fibre (TF-Gel) or thin fibril derived from the liquid crystalline phase (LC-Gels) and exhibit very different rheological properties. The gelator exists as three slowly interconverting conformers in solution. All three gels are comprised of an unsymmetrical, intramolecular hydrogen bonded conformer. The kinetics show that formation of the remarkable HH-Gel is cooperative and is postulated to involve association of the growing fibril with a non-gelling conformer. This single molecule dynamic conformational library shows how very different materials with different morphology and hence very contrasting materials properties can arise from pathway complexity as a result of emergent interactions during the assembly process. [Abstract copyright: This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.]

Citation

Contreras-Montoya, R., Smith, J. P., Boothroyd, S. C., Aguilar, J. A., Mirzamani, M., Screen, M. A., …He, L. (2023). Pathway complexity in fibre assembly: from liquid crystals to hyper-helical gelmorphs. Chemical Science, 14(41), 11389-11401. https://doi.org/10.1039/d3sc03841f

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Sep 25, 2023
Online Publication Date Sep 26, 2023
Publication Date Oct 1, 2023
Deposit Date Dec 4, 2023
Publicly Available Date Dec 4, 2023
Journal Chemical science
Print ISSN 2041-6520
Publisher Royal Society of Chemistry
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 14
Issue 41
Pages 11389-11401
DOI https://doi.org/10.1039/d3sc03841f
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1904524

Files





You might also like



Downloadable Citations