Helical self-assembled polymers from cooperative stacking of hydrogen-bonded pairs

The double helix of DNA epitomizes this molecule's ability to self-assemble in aqueous solutions into a complex chiral structure using hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions. Non-covalently interacting molecules in organic solvents are used to design systems that similarly form controlled architectures. Peripheral chiral centres in assemblies and chiral side chains attached to a polymer backbone, have been shown to induce chirality at the supramolecular level, and highly ordered structures stable in water are also known. However, it remains difficult to rationally exploit non-covalent interactions for the formation of chiral assemblies that are stable in water, where solvent molecules can compete effectively for hydrogen bonds. Here we describe a general strategy for the design of functionalized monomer units and their association in either water or alkanes into non-covalently linked polymeric structures with controlled helicity and chain length. The monomers consist of bifunctionalized ureidotriazine units connected by a spacer and carrying solubilizing chains at the periphery. This design allows for dimerization through self-complementary quadruple hydrogen bonding between the units and solvophobically induced stacking of the dimers into columnar polymeric architectures, whose structure and helicity can be adjusted by tuning the nature of the solubilizing side chains.     

Effect of temperature and pH value on cation exchange performance of a natural clay for selective (Cu2t, Co2t) removal: Equilibrium, sorption and kinetics

This work aims at investigating the strain effect,created by varying pH solution and continuous heating cycle,on the cation exchange process in the case of Na-rich montmorillonite sample in contact with bi-ionic solution with variable concentration,saturated respectively by Co2+ and Cu2+ cations.The ionic exchange process is characterized using XRD analysis obtained through the comparison of experimental XRD patterns with calculated ones,which allowed us to determine several structural parameters related to the nature,abundance,size,position and organization of exchangeable cation and water molecule in the interlamellar space along the caxis.Indeed,the proposed theoretical models,for the stressed samples,show that the structure presents an interstratified hydration character and proves the coexistence of more than two ’’crystallite’’ specie in the structure.The perturbation types have an obvious effect on the selective exchange process for all stressed samples,where the interlayer space is characterized by the coexistence of more one exchangeable cation.