期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：2016
卷号：113
期号：50
页码：14195-14200
DOI：10.1073/pnas.1609422113
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：SignificanceHow far can we push self-assembly toward unusual nanostructures? Frank-Kasper and quasicrystal phases represent unconventional phases of ordered spheroids originally identified in metal alloys. We report that Frank-Kasper and quasicrystal phases and their transition sequence are observed in one-component giant surfactants by introducing variations in molecular geometry. Both X-ray scattering and electron microscopy techniques are used to identify the self-assembled nanostructures. Combining molecular dynamics simulations, we attribute the appearance of these phases to molecular geometry as a result of tail number variation. Our findings lay the foundation for rational design of unconventional soft-matter phases and for exploiting them for unusual properties and functions. Frank-Kasper (F-K) and quasicrystal phases were originally identified in metal alloys and only sporadically reported in soft materials. These unconventional sphere-packing schemes open up possibilities to design materials with different properties. The challenge in soft materials is how to correlate complex phases built from spheres with the tunable parameters of chemical composition and molecular architecture. Here, we report a complete sequence of various highly ordered mesophases by the self-assembly of specifically designed and synthesized giant surfactants, which are conjugates of hydrophilic polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane cages tethered with hydrophobic polystyrene tails. We show that the occurrence of these mesophases results from nanophase separation between the heads and tails and thus is critically dependent on molecular geometry. Variations in molecular geometry achieved by changing the number of tails from one to four not only shift compositional phase boundaries but also stabilize F-K and quasicrystal phases in regions where simple phases of spheroidal micelles are typically observed. These complex self-assembled nanostructures have been identified by combining X-ray scattering techniques and real-space electron microscopy images. Brownian dynamics simulations based on a simplified molecular model confirm the architecture-induced sequence of phases. Our results demonstrate the critical role of molecular architecture in dictating the formation of supramolecular crystals with "soft" spheroidal motifs and provide guidelines to the design of unconventional self-assembled nanostructures.
