Chemical Fuel Mediated Self‐Regulatory Polymer Brushes for Autonomous Fluorescence Modulator and Wettability Switcher

Abstract

Synthetic systems of nonequilibrium self-assembly have made considerable progress; however, the achievement of innovative materials with self-regulated functions analogous to living systems remains a grand challenge. Herein, a versatile nonequilibrium system of polymer brushes with spatiotemporally programmable properties and functions driven by chemical fuels is reported. By combining a responsive polymer with an autonomous pH regulator, the polymer brushes self-regulate their swelling and deswelling process with tunable lifetimes. By using patterned copolymer brushes with pH-responsive fluorescence moiety, an autonomous fluorescence modulator is created that self-regulates its fluorescence in spatiotemporally programmable fashion driven by a chemical or an enzymatic reaction. Furthermore, a self-regulated wettability switcher of polymer brushes both in air and in an aqueous solution is implemented. The methodology and results in the work provide a useful avenue into the exploration of nonequilibrium synthetic materials with programmable functions and would accelerate the transformative developments of nonequilibrium materials and systems in practical applications.

Transient Biomacromolecular Nanoparticles for Labels with Self‐Erasable and Rewritable Ability

“…Chemical-mediated non-equilibrium self-assembly opens an avenue towards innovative materials with active, adaptive, autonomous, emergent, and intelligent behavior. [1,2,51,52] To date, functional materials, such as nanoreactors, [6,33,53] active carrier for molecular release, [15,54] biosensing, [55] temporally programmable imaging probes, [29] and self-erasing materials [7,48,56,57] have been implemented. For instance, a self-erasing ink with a tunable lifetime was prepared through carbodiimide-driven transient formation of the anhydride bond, achieving automatic erasure of patterns.…”