Synthesis and characterization of self-assembled structures of diethylene glycol monomethyl ether conjugated β-peptide foldamer

Abstract

Natural systems show the phenomenon of asymmetry in terms of chemical structure and shape, which is very important to carry out various functions. The generation of asymmetric supramolecular architectures using bottom-up approach has been remained a challenge for chemists due to dynamic nature of non-covalent interactions. Recently, few examples have been reported in the literature showing asymmetric self-assembly. In this regard, we designed a foldamer comprising two domains, such as $beta$ -peptide oligomer ($ACPC_6$) and diethyleneglycol monomethyl ether moiety. The results of microscopic analyses revealed that the conjugated foldamer ($ACPC_6OEG_2$) undergoes self-assembly to form two-dimensional micro-sized rectangular plates in P123 solution. Intriguingly, $ACPC_6$ oligomer shows epitaxial growth on only one side of the plates when added to the pre-formed self-assembled structure of $ACPC_6OEG_2$ foldamer, demonstrating asymmetry in the plate. These findings may be useful for the de novo design of foldecture that displaying asymmetric self-assembly