Affiliation:
1. Xi'an Rare Metal Materials Institute Co. Ltd. Xi'an Shaanxi 710016 China
2. Key Laboratory of Materials Chemistry for Energy Conversion and Storage, Ministry of Education, Hubei Key Laboratory of Materials Chemistry and Service Failure, Hubei Engineering Research Center for Biomaterials and Medical Protective Materials, State Key Laboratory of Materials Processing and Die & Mould Technology, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Huazhong University of Science and Technology Wuhan Hubei 430074 China
Abstract
Comprehensive SummaryPolycatenane gels have attracted extensive attention due to their high degree of freedom and mobility. However, the syntheses of poly[2]catenane gels reported to date all rely on the polymer as the backbone. Herein, we prepared poly[2]catenane gels based on entirely sequential assembly of small molecules. Monomer M1 with two unclosed rings was first prepared, which self‐assembled to form supramolecular polymers (SPs) via hydrogen bonding and π‐π interactions. Upon adding small molecule monomers M2 and M3 with aldehyde groups, ring closing of SPs occurred because the amino groups in the SPs reacted with M2 to form imine bonds. In addition, M3, which had twice the number of aldehyde groups as M2, enabled SPs to ring‐close, causing the proceeding of crosslinking process at the same time. Thus linear SPs were transformed into poly[2]catenane gel networks. Due to the presence of hydrogen bonds in the poly[2]catenane gel, the gel also possessed stimulus responsiveness and self‐healing properties.
Funder
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities