International Summer School PROGRAM - Laboratoire d'Infochimie ...

SUPRAMOLECULAR POLYMERS OF OLIGO-DYNAMERS
Gaël Schaeffer & Jean-Marie Lehn
Laboratoire de Chimie Supramoléculaire, ISIS, Université de Strasbourg, France
lehn@isis.u-strasbg.fr
Unlike traditional ones, supramolecular polymers are macromolecular entities where
monomers are held together by noncovalent interactions. The labile nature of the
interactions leads to dynamic properties for this type of polymers.
Similarly it is possible to use reversible covalent bonds to obtain labile interactions
between monomers (molecular dynamicity). One can thus define a group of polymers of
different nature (supramolecular and molecular) displaying the same dynamic feature.
These polymers, named dynamers, [1]
display adaptive and exchange properties due to
the lability of the interactions between their monomers.
In the work presented here, we show that it is possible to design double dynamers where
the molecular and supramolecular dynamicity are in a non-stoichiometric ratio. This has
been achieved by the:
- formation of oligomers where the monomers are held together by covalent
reversible interactions
- functionalization of the reactive end chains of these oligomers by hydrogen bonding
units
- connection of these functionalized oligomers by supramolecular interactions
This leads to the formation of an entity that can be seen as a supramolecular polymer of
molecular oligo-dynamers. It displays two types of dynamicity that are active on a
different scale. The molecular dynamicity can be used for exchange at the monomeric
level, whereas the supramolecular one acts on a larger scale by exchange of oligomeric
blocks.
[1] J.-M. Lehn, Prog. Pol. Sci., 2005, 30, 814-831