A Semiconducting Two-Dimensional Polymer as an Organic Electrochemical Transistor Active Layer.

Organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) are devices with broad potential in bioelectronic sensing, circuits, and neuromorphic hardware. Their unique properties arise from the use of organic mixed ionic/electronic conductors (OMIECs) as the active channel. Typical OMIECs are linear polymers, where defined and controlled microstructure/morphology, and reliable characterization of transport and charging can be elusive. Semiconducting two-dimensional polymers (2DPs) present a new avenue in OMIEC materials development, enabling electronic transport along with precise control of well-defined channels ideal for ion transport/intercalation. To this end, a recently reported 2DP, TIIP, is synthesized and patterned at 10 µm resolution as the channel of a transistor. The TIIP films demonstrate textured microstructure and show semiconducting properties with accessible oxidation states. Operating in an aqueous electrolyte, the 2DP-OECT exhibits a device-scale hole mobility of 0.05 cm2 V-1 s-1 and a µC* figure of merit of 1.75 F cm-1 V-1 s-1 . 2DP OMIECs thus offer new synthetic degrees of freedom to control OECT performance and may enable additional opportunities such as ion selectivity or improved stability through reduced morphological modulation during device operation.

Arene-perfluoroarene interactions confer enhanced mechanical properties to synthetic nanotubes.

Supramolecular nanotubes prepared through macrocycle assembly offer unique properties that stem from their long-range order, structural predictability, and tunable microenvironments. However, assemblies that rely on weak non-covalent interactions often have limited aspect ratios and poor mechanical integrity, which diminish their utility. Here pentagonal imine-linked macrocycles are prepared by condensing a pyridine-containing diamine and either terephthalaldehyde or 2,3,5,6-tetrafluoroterephthalaldehyde. Atomic force microscopy and synchrotron in solvo X-ray diffraction demonstrate that protonation of the pyridine groups drives assembly into high-aspect ratio nanotube assemblies. A 1 : 1 mixture of each macrocycle yielded nanotubes with enhanced crystallinity upon protonation. UV-Vis and fluorescence spectroscopy indicate that nanotubes containing both arene and perfluoroarene subunits display spectroscopic signatures of arene-perfluoroarene interactions. Touch-spun polymeric fibers containing assembled nanotubes prepared from the perhydro- or perfluorinated macrocycles exhibited Young's moduli of 1.09 and 0.49 GPa, respectively. Fibers containing nanotube assemblies reinforced by arene-perfluoroarene interactions yielded a 93% increase in the Young's modulus over the perhydro derivative, up to 2.1 GPa. These findings demonstrate that tuning the chemical composition of the monomeric macrocycles can have profound effects on the mechanical strength of the resulting assemblies. More broadly, these results will inspire future studies into tuning orthogonal non-covalent interactions between macrocycles to yield nanotubes with emergent functions and technological potential.

Lithium-Conducting Self-Assembled Organic Nanotubes.

Supramolecular polymers are compelling platforms for the design of stimuli-responsive materials with emergent functions. Here, we report the assembly of an amphiphilic nanotube for Li-ion conduction that exhibits high ionic conductivity, mechanical integrity, electrochemical stability, and solution processability. Imine condensation of a pyridine-containing diamine with a triethylene glycol functionalized isophthalaldehyde yields pore-functionalized macrocycles. Atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and in solvo X-ray diffraction reveal that macrocycle protonation during their mild synthesis drives assembly into high-aspect ratio (>103) nanotubes with three interior triethylene glycol groups. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy demonstrates that lithiated nanotubes are efficient Li+ conductors, with an activation energy of 0.42 eV and a peak room temperature conductivity of 3.91 ± 0.38 × 10-5 S cm-1. 7Li NMR and Raman spectroscopy show that lithiation occurs exclusively within the nanotube interior and implicates the glycol groups in facilitating efficient Li+ transduction. Linear sweep voltammetry and galvanostatic lithium plating-stripping tests reveal that this nanotube-based electrolyte is stable over a wide potential range and supports long-term cyclability. These findings demonstrate how the coupling of synthetic design and supramolecular structural control can yield high-performance ionic transporters that are amenable to device-relevant fabrication, as well as the technological potential of chemically designed self-assembled nanotubes.

Diverse Proton-Conducting Nanotubes via a Tandem Macrocyclization and Assembly Strategy.

Macrocycles that assemble into nanotubes exhibit emergent properties stemming from their low dimensionality, structural regularity, and distinct interior environments. We report a versatile strategy to synthesize diverse nanotube structures in a single, efficient reaction by using a conserved building block bearing a pyridine ring. Imine condensation of a 2,4,6-triphenylpyridine-based diamine with various aromatic dialdehydes yields chemically distinct pentagonal [5 + 5], hexagonal [3 + 3], and diamond-shaped [2 + 2] macrocycles depending on the substitution pattern of the aromatic dialdehyde monomer. Atomic force microscopy and in solvo X-ray diffraction demonstrate that protonation of the macrocycles under the mild conditions used for their synthesis drives assembly into high-aspect ratio nanotubes. Each of the pyridine-containing nanotube assemblies exhibited measurable proton conductivity by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, with values as high as 10-3 S m-1 (90% R.H., 25 °C) that we attribute to differences in their internal pore sizes. This synthetic strategy represents a general method to access robust nanotube assemblies from a universal pyridine-containing monomer, which will enable systematic investigations of their emergent properties.

Rapid Optical Determination of Enantiomeric Excess, Diastereomeric Excess, and Total Concentration Using Dynamic-Covalent Assemblies: A Demonstration Using 2-Aminocyclohexanol and Chemometrics.

Optical analysis of reaction parameters such as enantiomeric excess (ee), diastereomeric excess (de), and yield are becoming increasingly useful as assays for differing functional groups become available. These assays typically exploit reversible covalent or noncovalent assemblies that impart optical signals, commonly circular dichroism (CD), that are indicative of the stereochemistry and ee at a stereocenter proximal to the functional group of interest. Very few assays have been reported that determine ee and de when two stereocenters are present, and none have targeted two different functional groups that are vicinal and lack chromophores entirely. Using a CD assay that targets chiral secondary alcohols, a separate CD assay for chiral primary amines, a UV-vis assay for de, and a fluorescence assay for concentration, we demonstrate a work-flow for speciation of the enantiomers and diastereomers of 2-aminocyclohexanol as a test-bed analyte. Because of the fact the functional groups are vicinal, we found that the ee determination at the two stereocenters is influenced by the adjacent center, and this led us to implement a chemometric patterning approach, resulting in a 4% absolute error in full speciation of the four stereoisomers. The procedure presented herein would allow for the total speciation of around 96 reactions in 27 min using a high-throughput experimentation routine. While 2-aminocyclohexanol is used to demonstrate the methods, the general workflow should be amenable to analysis of other stereoisomers when two stereocenters are present.

Boronic Acid Mediated Coupling of Catechols and N-Hydroxylamines: A Bioorthogonal Reaction to Label Peptides.

An irreversible, three-component assembly with 2-formylphenylboronic acid, catechol, and N-hydroxylamines was achieved in aqueous media. The boronate ester product was formed with substituted catechols including l-DOPA. Assembly was found to be orthogonal to common biological functional groups and both copper(I)-catalyzed alkyne-azide cycloaddition and aminoether/carbonyl condensations. Boronate ester formation and aminoether condensation were achieved in one pot with a hexameric peptide.