We report a facile strategy to grow supramolecular copolymers on Au surfaces by successively exposing a surface-anchored monomer to solutions of oppositely charged peptide comonomers. Charge regulation on the active chain end of the polymer sufficiently slows down the kinetics of the self-assembly process to produce kinetically trapped copolymers at near-neutral pH. We thereby achieve architectural control at three levels: The β-sheet sequences direct the polymerization away from the surface, the height of the supramolecular copolymer brushes is well-controlled by the stepwise nature of the alternating copolymer growth, and 2D spatial resolution is realized by using micropatterned initiating monomers. The programmable nature of the resulting architectures renders this concept attractive for the development of customized biomaterials or chiral interfaces for optoelectronics and sensor applications.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.