Volume 45, Issue 17 2400261
Research Article

Aqueous Supramolecular Transformations of Motor Bola-Amphiphiles at Multiple Length-Scale

Jiahui Meng

Jiahui Meng

State Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery, Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, 999077 China

Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Optical Information Materials and Technology and Institute of Electronic Paper, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510006 China

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Leong-Hung Cheung

Leong-Hung Cheung

State Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery, Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, 999077 China

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Yikun Ren

Yikun Ren

State Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery, Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, 999077 China

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Marc C. A. Stuart

Marc C. A. Stuart

Centre for System Chemistry, Stratingh Institute for Chemistry and Groningen Biomolecular Science and Biotechnology Institute, University of Groningen, AG Groningen, 9747 Netherlands

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Qian Wang

Qian Wang

State Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery, Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, 999077 China

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Shaoyu Chen

Corresponding Author

Shaoyu Chen

School of Fashion and Textiles, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, 999077 China

E-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

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Jiawen Chen

Corresponding Author

Jiawen Chen

Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Optical Information Materials and Technology and Institute of Electronic Paper, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510006 China

E-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

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Franco King-Chi Leung

Corresponding Author

Franco King-Chi Leung

State Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery, Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, 999077 China

Centre for Eye and Vision Research, 17 W Hong Kong Science Park, Hong Kong, 999077 China

E-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

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First published: 28 May 2024
Citations: 1

Abstract

Molecular motor amphiphiles have already been widely attempted for dynamic nanosystems across multiple length-scale for developments of small functional materials, including controlling macroscopic foam properties, amplifying motion as artificial molecular muscles, and serving as extracellular matrix mimicking cell scaffolds. However, limiting examples of bola-type molecular motor amphiphiles are considered for constructing macroscopic biomaterials. Herein, this work presents the designed two second generation molecular motor amphiphiles, motor bola-amphiphiles (MBAs). Aside from the photoinduced motor rotation of MBAs achieved in both organic and aqueous media, the rate of recovering thermal helix inversion step can be controlled by the rotor part with different steric hindrances. Dynamic assembled structures of MBAs are observed under (cryo)-transmission electron microscopy (TEM). This dynamicity assists MBAs in further assembling as macroscopic soft scaffolds by applying a shear-flow method. Upon photoirradiation, the phototropic bending function of MBA scaffolds is observed, demonstrating the amplification of molecular motion into macroscopic phototropic bending functions at the macroscopic length-scale. Since MBAs are confirmed with low cytotoxicity, human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hBM-MSCs) can grow on the surface of MBA scaffolds. These results clearly demonstrate the concept of designing MBAs for developing photoresponsive dynamic functional materials to create new-generation soft robotic systems and cell-material interfaces.

Conflict of Interest

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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