Polypeptide-based organogels, driven by the supramolecular interactions between polypeptide segments, have potential applications as responsive materials and templates for fabrication of nanostructures. A new type of well-defined diblock copolymer of methoxyl poly(ethylene glycol)-block-poly(g-benzyl L-glutamate-co-glycine) mPEG-b-P(BLG-co-Gly) was facilely synthesized by statistical ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of ?-benzyl L-glutamate (BLG) and glycine (Gly) initiated by mPEG-amine.  The supramolecular assembly of a-helixes and �-sheets in the polypeptide segments, which were characterized by attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), enabled these hybrid diblock copolymers to be an exceptional organogelators, resulting in gelation with low critical gelation concentrations (ca. 0.6 wt%) in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF).  The critical gelation concentration, turbidity and stiffness of the organogels could be tuned by simply alternating the feed ratio of BLG and Gly NCAs.  The physical properties of these organogels were studied by dynamic mechanical analysis, having storage moduli of ca. 1.2 kPa at room temperature.

Facile syntheses and characterizations of organgels with tunable turbidity and stiffness by ring-opening polymerizations (ROPs) of <i>N</i>-carboxyanhydrides (NCAs)

246th National Meeting (2013)

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Facile syntheses and characterizations of organgels with tunable turbidity and stiffness by ring-opening polymerizations (ROPs) of N-carboxyanhydrides (NCAs)