The drug delivery system based on supramolecular vesicles that were self-assembled by a novel host-guest inclusion complex between a water-soluble pillar[6]arene (WP6) and hydrophobic ferrocene derivative in water has been developed. The inclusion complexation between WP6 and ferrocene derivative in water was studied by (1)H NMR, UV-vis, and fluorescence spectroscopy, which showed a high binding constant of (1.27 ± 0.42) × 10(5) M(-1) with 1:1 binding stoichiometry. This resulting inclusion complex could self-assemble into supramolecular vesicles that displayed a significant pH-responsive behavior in aqueous solution, which were investigated by fluorescent probe technique, dynamic laser scattering, and transmission electron microscopy. Furthermore, the drug loading and in vitro drug release studies demonstrated that these supramolecular vesicles were able to encapsulate mitoxantrone (MTZ) to achieve MTZ-loaded vesicles, which particularly showed rapid MTZ release at low-pH environment. More importantly, the cellular uptake of these pH-responsive MTZ-loaded vesicles by cancer cells was observed by living cell imaging techniques, and their cytotoxicity assay indicated that unloaded vesicles had low toxicity to normal cells, which could dramatically reduce the toxicity of MTZ upon loading of MTZ. Meanwhile, MTZ-loaded vesicles exhibited comparable anticancer activity in vitro as free MTZ to cancer cells under examined conditions. This study suggests that such supramolecular vesicles have great potential as controlled drug delivery systems.

Large aggregates, constructed by linking together monomer building blocks via non-covalent interactions with polymer properties, are regarded as supramolecular polymers. Many kinds of non-covalent interactions, such as metal-ligand coordination, hydrogen bonding, π-π stacking, ionic interaction, and host-guest interaction etc., can be involved in the binding interactions of monomer building blocks, as well as in the modification of the side chain for the construction of variable supramolecular polymers. In this tutorial review, we summarized the reported supramolecular polymers fully- or partially-created from the combination of multiple non-covalent binding interactions, mainly of two kinds, in the orthogonal way.

CONSPECTUS: Supramolecular complexes, including various low-molecular-mass structures and large molecular aggregates that are assembled by reversible and highly directional noncovalent interactions, have attracted more and more attention due to their fascinating and unconventional chemical and physical properties that are different from those of traditional architectures encountered by covalently linked backbones. Supramolecular complexes are by nature dynamic architectures considering the reversibility of noncovalent interactions by which small molecular monomers can assemble into specific architectures that are able to be repeatably reorganized through the assembly/disassembly processes under certain environmental factors such as temperature, concentration, and solvent conditions. The construction of supramolecular complexes by orthogonal self-assembly with different types of highly specific, noninterfering interactions is currently attracting considerable interest since they not only can dynamically self-assemble, but also can be tuned by various external stimuli through addressing each type of noncovalent interaction separately. Therefore, these dynamic supramolecular complexes, especially with external responsiveness, represent the most outstanding candidates for the future development of functional and smart materials, and even mimic the assembling process of natural systems. In this Account, we will summarize the recent advances of dynamic supramolecular complexes constructed by orthogonal self-assembly in soluiton in two sections: (1) Construction strategies for supramolecular complexes based on orthogonal self-assembly, whose dynamic behaviors with external responsiveness were not experimentally investigated but potentially existed due to the intrinsic reversibility of noncovalent bonds; (2) dynamic behaviors of multiresponsive supramolecular complexes, which were experimentally reported to exhibit reversible multi-responsiveness to external stimuli. Dynamic nature is one of intrinsic properties of supramolecular complexes constructed by self-assembly. Therefore, in the first section, we will describe the dynamic self-assembly in the construction of supramolecular complexes, but will focus on their external responsive dynamic behaviors in the second section. In addition, considering that an increasing number of supramolecular complexes constructed by biological building blocks through bio-orthogonal assembly as mimics of biological systems have been reported in recent years, in the second section we will also present some typical examples on such special dynamic biological supramolecular complexes. The final part of this Account is devoted to foreseeing the rapid development of dynamic supramolecular complexes toward applications in functional and smart materials and fundamental questions facing dynamic supramolecular complexes in the future.

Functional materials play a vital role in the fabrication of smart windows, which can provide a more comfortable indoor environment for humans to enjoy a better lifestyle. Traditional materials for smart windows tend to possess only a single functionality with the purpose of regulating the input of solar energy. However, different color tones also have great influences on human emotions. Herein, a strategy for orthogonal integration of different properties is proposed, namely the thermo-responsiveness of ethylene glycol-modified pillar[6]arene (EGP6) and the redox-induced reversible color switching of ferrocene/ferrocenium groups are orthogonally integrated into one system. This gives rise to a material with cooperative and non-interfering dual functions, featuring both thermochromism and warm/cool tone-switchability. Consequently, the obtained bifunctional material for fabricating smart windows can not only regulate the input of solar energy but also can provide a more comfortable color tone to improve the feelings and emotions of people in indoor environments.

Artificial light-harvesting systems (LHSs) have drawn increasing research interest in recent times due to the energy crisis worldwide. Concurrently, macrocycle-based host-guest interactions have played an important role in the development of supramolecular chemistry. In recent years, studies towards artificial LHSs driven by macrocycle-based host-guest interactions are gradually being disclosed. In this mini-review, we briefly introduce the burgeoning progress of artificial LHSs driven by host-guest interactions. We believe that an increasing number of reports of artificial LHSs driven by host-guest interactions will appear in the near future and will provide a viable alternative for the future production of renewable energy.

The recent progress in dynamic hydrogels mediated by macrocyclic host–guest interactions is reviewed.

Recent progress of functional nanocarriers fabricated by pillar[n]arene-based supra-amphiphiles is reviewed.

A dissipative assembly process is an out-ofequilibrium dynamic process driven by chemical fuels. Such processes play very important roles in different types of biochemical process in nature. Herein, a dissipative hydrogel system based on the multiple-carboxyl tetraphenylethylene MCTPE 1 and 1-ethyl-3-(3-(dimethylamino)propyl)carbodiimide (EDC) was constructed successfully. In the hydrogel system, an aqueous solution of MCTPE 1 could be converted into the hydrogel rapidly using EDC as the chemical fuel. After that, the obtained hydrogel began to dissolve back to the solution state slowly. On the basis of this chemical-fueldriven dissipative system, a writable in aqueous solution and selferasable hydrogel material was achieved.