Collaboration between academician Tang benzhong of Hong Kong University of science and technology and Professor Jonathan L. Sessler of University of Texas Austin: AIE soft magic cube realizes dynamic macro assembly

Static and dynamic assembly of leads is common in nature, and has always inspired scientists to build more advanced materials Compared with the static assembly field, the dynamic assembly is still one of the most challenging topics in the field of chemistry and materials Recently, the research group of academician Tang benzhong of Hong Kong University of science and technology and Professor Jonathan L Sessler of the University of Texas at Austin have made a breakthrough in this regard (adv mater 2019, 1902365) Tang benzhong, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, member of the Royal Society of chemistry, Professor Zhang Jianquan, Department of chemistry and biomedical engineering, Hong Kong University of science and technology, Professor of South China University of technology, Guangzhou, honorary director of AIE Research Center, Shenzhen University He is now the chief scientist of the 973 Program of the Ministry of science and technology, the project director of the basic science research center of the National Natural Science Foundation, the leader of the introduction and innovation research team of Guangdong Province, and the editor in chief of materials chemistry frontiers, a joint Journal of the Chinese chemical society and the Royal chemical society Professor Tang benzhong has published more than 1000 academic papers, which have been cited nearly 80000 times, with an H index of 131 He was successively selected as a highly cited scientist in the fields of chemistry and materials in 2014-2017 Academician Tang has won a number of honors and awards, including the second prize of National Natural Science, Senior Researcher Award of Croucher foundation, Wang Baoren award of China Chemical Society, Feng Xinde award of Elsevier magazine and science and technology progress award of He Liang He Li foundation In 2016, AIE nanoparticles were listed by nature as one of the four nanomaterials supporting the upcoming nano Light Revolution, and it is the only new material created by Chinese scientists In the same year, CNBC television in the United States conducted a live interview with Academician Tang on the theme of "year of cancer" to introduce the application of AIE fluorescent probes in cancer cell recognition and other fields to the global live broadcast; 2018 At the beginning of the year, he won the first prize of National Natural Science in 2017 with the "aggregation induced luminescence" project as the first project finisher Cutting edge scientific research achievements: AIE soft magic cube realizes dynamic macro assembly In nature, assembly phenomenon is common, from the formation of protein on the molecular level to the gradual construction of organism from cell to tissue to organ to system, it is realized through assembly; on the basis of this complex assembly, organism can realize the dynamic of assembly through life process such as development In line with the scientific research strategy of "learning from nature", scientists have been trying to realize the bionic multi-level assembly structure and its dynamic of man-made materials, so as to meet people's higher requirements for material performance and function However, at present, the research on assembly is mainly focused on the static field, and the dynamic assembly is still one of the most challenging topics in the field of chemistry and materials Recently, the first mock exam team of Hong Kong University Science & Technology and Professor Jonathan L Sessler of University of Texas-Austin have been working together to build a new model of the advanced materials for dynamic assembly by the construction of the luminous soft cube model and the display of its changing process The strategy of Tang Benzhong's research and development is also presented They used high-strength polyethylene glycol hydrogel as the matrix of soft magic cube, using the classic dynamic covalent bond of acyl hydrazone bond as the driving force of dynamic assembly, and a series of AIE compounds from blue to red as the source of different luminescence colors The AIE software hydrogel magic cube was obtained by stepwise assembly (Fig 1) Figure 1 (a) AIE soft Rubik's cube design sketch; (b) gel polymer polymer and hydrogel network schematic diagram; (c) the molecular structure of AIE compounds used Note: rubik'cube is licensed by Rubik brand Co., Ltd for its name and pattern Credit: X Li et al / adv.mater / Rubik's brand Ltd (source: adv mater.) acylhydrazone bond, as a kind of dynamic covalent bond, is widely used in the preparation of self-healing materials Its healing efficiency is time-dependent (with the increase of time, the healing efficiency of the system increases), and its molecular mechanism is that the reversible exchange of acylhydrazone bond is time-dependent (Figure 2) Fig 2 (a) the time dependence of macroscopic bonding of two hydrogel units; (b) and (c) the time dependence of macromolecular bond mechanical strength of two hydrogel units (source: adv mater.) uses the feature of dynamic covalent bond, the author innovatively realizes the dynamic of soft cube assembly by controlling time Six AIE active hydrogel membranes with different fluorescent colors were attached to six surfaces of a blank gel gel Through long time (24 hours) interaction, the membrane and block were assembled into a whole through strong adhesion force, forming the HG- C (3a) Subsequently, 27 of these primitives were further assembled Through short-term (1 hour) interaction, the magic cube of metastable state was obtained (Fig 3b, c) Through the control of time, there is a moderate interaction between the elements, which makes the cube stable as a whole and flexible, and enables the assembly to be dynamic under the application of external forces In the case of applying external force, the cube can realize the pattern reduction by transverse rotation (FIG 4A), longitudinal rotation (Fig 4b) and composite rotation (Fig 4C) Fig 3 (a) preparation of the AIE soft cube element hg-c; (b) preparation of the AIE soft cube; (c) stability of the AIE soft cube (source: adv mater.) Figure 4 (a) horizontal rotation reduction of AIE soft cube; (b) vertical rotation reduction of AIE soft cube; (c) composite rotation reduction of AIE soft cube (source: adv mater.) in addition, the AIE soft magic cube in this report can also realize ex situ reduction due to its different construction mechanism from the traditional mechanical hard magic cube (Figure 5a) Due to the relatively weak interaction between the cube elements, the cube elements can be disassembled, rotated and reset, or the cube dimension can be changed through the disassembly assembly process (Figure 5C) Stimuli responsive AIE compounds can be introduced into magic cube hydrogel, so chemical stimulation can also achieve the reduction of the magic cube pattern (Fig 5b) Due to the dynamic of the interface assembly and the stimulus response of AIE molecules, the above unique properties of AIE soft magic cube cannot be realized by traditional mechanical hard magic cube Figure 5 (a) ex situ reduction of AIE soft cube; (b) chemical stimulation reduction of AIE soft cube; (c) dimensional transformation of AIE soft cube (source: Adv Mater.) Summary: the authors use high-strength AIE hydrogel as the material base, and use dynamic covalent bond time dependence Through simple time regulation, we can achieve hierarchical assembly in the same system and demonstrate the dynamic assembly This work provides a new strategy for the realization of macro dynamic assembly and a new scheme for the development of luminescent functional advanced materials This work was published in adv mater (adv mater 2019) under the title of "a functional macro" Rubik's Cube "assembled via controlled dynamic covalentinterferences, In 1902365), the first authors are Dr Ji Xiaofan and Dr Li Chao, postdoctoral of Hong Kong University of science and technology, and the corresponding authors are academician Tang benzhong of Hong Kong University of science and technology and Professor Jonathan L Sessler, University of Texas at Austin The first unit is Hong Kong University of science and technology After this work was published, famous media such as nature, C & en, advanced science news reported the following highlights: nature highlights: https:// C & en highlights: https://cen.acs.org/materials/rubiks-cube-chemical-twist/97/web/2019/08 Highlights of advanced science news: https:// 201902365
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