Hydrogels have highly variable mechanical properties, making them increasingly important in a variety of biomedical and industrial applications. Supramolecular polymeric hydrogels are three-dimensional networked materials that specific and dynamic non-covalent interactions are used as the structural crosslinks. As one kind of widely studied non-covalent interactions, macrocyclic host�guest complexation has been engaged in supramolecular cross-linking, and further fabricating hydrogels. p-Sulfonatocalixarenes represent a family of water-soluble macrocycles, and show strong binding affinity and high molecular selectivity towards organic cations, driven by the synergistic effect of additional anchoring points donated by sulfonate groups together with the intrinsic cavities. Notably, hydrogels driven by molecular recognition of p-sulfonatocalixarenes are barely reported. Herein, we wish to report a supramolecular hydrogel based on the host-guest complexation of p-sulfonatocalix[4]arene tetradodecyl ether with viologen-grafted polymer. p-Sulfonatocalixarenes adorned at the lower rim with alkyl chains can form micelles with special recognition site (calixarene cavity) on its out-layer surface, which could be further hierarchically assembled. The micelles were then cross-linked by the viologen-grafted polymer, generating the three-dimensional network. As viologen is redox-active, the obtained supramolecular hydrogel is responsive to electro-stimulus.  Scheme 1.  Formation of the supramolecular hydrogel by cross-linking of the polymer chains via host-guest inclusion complexation of the viologen substituents and the macrocyclic hosts on the surface of p-sulfonatocalixarene micelles.We thank 973 Program (2011CB932502) and NNSFC (91227107) for financial support.References 1. Appel, E. A.; del Barrio, J.; Loh, X. J.; Scherman, O. A. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2012  , 41, 6195-6214.2. Guo, D.-S.; Liu, Y. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2012  , 41, 5907-5921.3. Himmelein, S.; Lewe, V.; Stuart, M. C.; Ravoo, B. J. Chem. Sci., 2014  , 5,1054-1058.4. Zhang, J.; Guo, D.-S.; Wang, L.-H.; Wang, Z.; Liu, Y. Soft Matter, 2011  , 7, 1756-1762.

Electro-responsive supramolecular polymeric hydrogel

248th National Meeting (2014)

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