Volume 136, Issue 27 e202400989
Forschungsartikel

Anion-Coordination Foldamer-Based Polymer Network: from Molecular Spring to Elastomer

Jiangping Qin

Jiangping Qin

Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Natural Functional Molecule of the Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Northwest University, 710069 Xi'an, P. R. China

These authors contributed equally to this work.

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Dr. Yongming Wang

Dr. Yongming Wang

School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Frontiers Science Center for Transformative Molecules, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 200240 Shanghai, P. R. China

These authors contributed equally to this work.

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Tian Wang

Tian Wang

Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Natural Functional Molecule of the Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Northwest University, 710069 Xi'an, P. R. China

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Na Wang

Na Wang

Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Natural Functional Molecule of the Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Northwest University, 710069 Xi'an, P. R. China

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Dr. Wenhua Xu

Dr. Wenhua Xu

Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Natural Functional Molecule of the Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Northwest University, 710069 Xi'an, P. R. China

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Dr. Lin Cheng

Dr. Lin Cheng

School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Frontiers Science Center for Transformative Molecules, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 200240 Shanghai, P. R. China

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Prof. Wei Yu

Prof. Wei Yu

School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Frontiers Science Center for Transformative Molecules, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 200240 Shanghai, P. R. China

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Prof. Xuzhou Yan

Prof. Xuzhou Yan

School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Frontiers Science Center for Transformative Molecules, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 200240 Shanghai, P. R. China

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Prof. Dr. Lingyan Gao

Prof. Dr. Lingyan Gao

Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Natural Functional Molecule of the Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Northwest University, 710069 Xi'an, P. R. China

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Prof. Dr. Bo Zheng

Corresponding Author

Prof. Dr. Bo Zheng

Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Natural Functional Molecule of the Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Northwest University, 710069 Xi'an, P. R. China

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Prof. Dr. Biao Wu

Corresponding Author

Prof. Dr. Biao Wu

Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Natural Functional Molecule of the Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Northwest University, 710069 Xi'an, P. R. China

Key Laboratory of Medicinal Molecule Science and Pharmaceutics Engineering, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, 100081 Beijing, P. R. China

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First published: 16 April 2024

Abstract

Foldamer is a scaled-down version of coil spring, which can absorb and release energy by conformational change. Here, polymer networks with high density of molecular springs were developed by employing anion-coordination-based foldamers as the monomer. The coiling of the foldamer is controlled by oligo(urea) ligands coordinating to chloride ions; subsequently, the folding and unfolding of foldamer conformations endow the polymer network with excellent energy dissipation and toughness. The mechanical performance of the corresponding polymer networks shows a dramatic increase from P-L2UCl (non-folding), to P-L4UCl (a full turn), and then to P-L6UCl (1.5 turns), in terms of strength (2.62 MPa; 14.26 MPa; 22.93 MPa), elongation at break (70 %; 325 %; 352 %), Young's modulus (2.69 MPa; 63.61 MPa; 141.50 MPa), and toughness (1.12 MJ/m3; 21.39 MJ/m3; 49.62 MJ/m3), respectively, which is also better than those without anion centers and the non-foldamer based counterparts. Moreover, P-L6UCl shows enhanced strength and toughness than most of the molecular-spring based polymer networks. Thus, an effective strategy for designing high-performance anion-coordination-based materials is presented.

Conflict of interests

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available in the supplementary material of this article.

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