ja9b06739_si_001.pdf (15.77 MB)
Construction of Type III‑C Rotaxane-Branched Dendrimers and Their Anion-Induced Dimension Modulation Feature
journal contribution
posted on 2019-08-23, 20:43 authored by Xu-Qing Wang, Wei-Jian Li, Wei Wang, Jin Wen, Ying Zhang, Hongwei Tan, Hai-Bo YangStarting from a novel
rotaxane building block with dendrimer growth
sites being located at both the wheel and axle component, we realized
the successful construction of a new family of rotaxane-branched dendrimers,
i.e., Type III-C rotaxane-branched dendrimers, up to fourth generation
as a highly branched [46]rotaxane through a controllable divergent
approach. In the resultant rotaxane-branched dendrimers, the wheel
components of the rotaxane units are located on the branches as well
as at the branching points, making them excellent candidates to mimic
the amplified collective molecular motions. Thus, taking advantage
of the urea moiety inserted into the axle components of the rotaxane
units as the binding sites, the addition or removal of acetate anion
as stimulus endows the individual rotaxane unit a switchable feature
that lead to a collective expansion–contraction motion of the
integrated rotaxane-branched dendrimers, thus allowing for the remarkable
and reversible size modulation. Such a three-dimensional size switching
feature makes Type III-C rotaxane-branched dendrimers a very promising
platform toward the fabrication of novel dynamic smart materials.