Direct-write orientation of charge-transfer liquid crystals enables polarization-based coding and encryption.

Optical polarizers encompass a class of anisotropic materials that pass-through discrete orientations of light and are found in wide-ranging technologies, from windows and glasses to cameras, digital displays and photonic devices. The wire-grids, ordered surfaces, and aligned nanomaterials used to make polarized films cannot be easily reconfigured once aligned, limiting their use to stationary cross-polarizers in, for example, liquid crystal displays. Here we describe a supramolecular material set and patterning approach where the polarization angle in stand-alone films can be precisely defined at the single pixel level and reconfigured following initial alignment. This capability enables new routes for non-binary information storage, retrieval, and intrinsic encryption, and it suggests future technologies such as photonic chips that can be reconfigured using non-contact patterning.

Laser Rewritable Dichroics through Reconfigurable Organic Charge-Transfer Liquid Crystals.

Charge-transfer materials based on the self-assembly of aromatic donor-acceptor complexes enable a modular organic-synthetic approach to develop and fine-tune electronic and optical properties, and thus these material systems stand to impact a wide range of technologies. Through laser-induction of temperature gradients, in this study, user-defined patterning of strongly dichroic and piezoelectric organic thin films composed of donor-acceptor columnar liquid crystals is shown. Fine, reversible control over isotropic versus anisotropic regions in thin films is demonstrated, enabling noncontact writing/rewriting of micropolarizers, bar codes, and charge-transfer based devices.

Strongly Dichroic Organic Films via Controlled Assembly of Modular Aromatic Charge-Transfer Liquid Crystals.

The formation of highly anisotropic organic thin films based on the designed self-assembly of mixed-stack liquid crystals is reported. A series of alkoxyanthracene donors is combined in a modular fashion with a naphthalenediimide acceptor to generate new charge-transfer columnar liquid crystals. Materials characterization and molecular modeling provides insight into structure-function relationships in these organic materials that lead to the striking bulk dichroic properties of certain molecular assemblies.

A systematic study of thermochromic aromatic donor-acceptor materials.

Molar mixtures (1:1) of electron-rich dialkoxynapthalene (Dan) and electron-deficient 1,4,5,8-napthalenetetracarboxylic diimide (Ndi) derivatives form highly tunable, columnar mesophases with a dark red color due to a charge transfer absorbance derived from alternating face-centered stacking. Certain Dan-Ndi mixtures undergo a dramatic color change from dark red to an almost colorless material upon crystallizing from the mesophase. Macroscopic morphology of the solid is not changed during this process. In order to investigate the origins of this interesting thermochromic behavior, Dan and Ndi side chains were systematically altered and their 1:1 mixtures were studied. We have previously speculated that the presence or absence of steric interactions due to side chain branching on the aromatic units controlled the level of color change associated with crystallization. Results from the present study further refine this conclusion including a key crystal structure that provides a structural rationale for the observed results.

Solid-phase synthesis of peptide-viologen conjugates.

This paper presents a robust method for the conjugation of viologens to peptides using an amide coupling strategy that is compatible with standard Fmoc solid-phase peptide synthesis. Methodology is presented for monitoring the milligram scale process quantitatively by UV spectroscopy. This chemistry enables the synthesis of a broad range of asymmetric viologens in high yield at room temperature and is compatible with a wide range of functional groups, including amine, guanidinyl, thiol, carboxylic acid, phenol, and indole.

Multivalent recognition of peptides by modular self-assembled receptors.

Developing nontraditional approaches to the synthesis and characterization of multivalent compounds is critical to our efforts to study and interface with biological systems and to build new noncovalent materials. This paper demonstrates a biomimetic approach to the construction of discrete, modular, multivalent receptors via molecular self-assembly in aqueous solution. Scaffolds presenting 1-3 viologen groups recruit a respective 1-3 copies of the synthetic host, cucurbit[8]uril, in a noncooperative manner and with a consistent equilibrium association constant (K(a)) value of 2 x 10(6) M(-1) per binding site. The assembled mono-, di-, and trivalent receptors bind to their cognate target peptides containing 1-3 Trp residues with K(a) values in the range 1.7 x 10(4)-4.7 x 10(6) M(-1) and in predetermined mono- or multivalent binding modes with 31-280-fold enhancements in affinity and additive enthalpies due to multivalency. The extent of valency was determined directly by measuring the visible charge-transfer absorptivity due to the viologen-indole pair. The predictable behavior of this system and its ease of synthesis and analysis make it well suited to serve as a model for multivalent binding and for the multivalent recognition of peptides by design.

Screening of threading bis-intercalators binding to duplex DNA by electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry.

The DNA binding of novel threading bis-intercalators V1, trans-D1, and cis-C1, which contain two naphthalene diimide (NDI) intercalation units connected by a scaffold, was evaluated using electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) and DNAse footprinting techniques. ESI-MS experiments confirmed that V1, the ligand containing the -Gly3-Lys- peptide scaffold, binds to a DNA duplex containing the 5'-GGTACC-3' specific binding site identified in previous NMR-based studies. The ligand formed complexes with a ligand/DNA binding stoichiometry of 1:1, even when there was excess ligand in solution. Trans-D1 and cis-C1 are new ligands containing a rigid spiro-tricyclic scaffold in the trans- and cis- orientations, respectively. Preliminary DNAse footprinting experiments identified possible specific binding sites of 5'-CAGTGA-5' for trans-D1 and 5'-GGTACC-3' for cis-C1. ESI-MS experiments revealed that both ligands bound to DNA duplexes containing the respective specific binding sequences, with cis-C1 exhibiting the most extensive binding based on a higher fraction of bound DNA value. Cis-C1 formed complexes with a dominant 1:1 binding stoichiometry, whereas trans-D1 was able to form 2:1 complexes at ligand/DNA molar ratios >or=1 which is suggestive of nonspecific binding. Collisional activated dissociation (CAD) experiments indicate that DNA complexes containing V1, trans-D1, and cis-C1 have a unique fragmentation pathway, which was also observed for complexes containing the commercially available bis-intercalator echinomycin, as a result of similar binding interactions, marked by intercalation in addition to hydrogen bonding by the scaffold with the DNA major or minor groove.

Tunable columnar mesophases utilizing C2 symmetric aromatic donor-acceptor complexes.

Derivatives of relatively electron rich 1,5-dialkoxynaphthalene (Dan) donors and relatively electron deficient 1,4,5,8-naphthalenetetracarboxylic diimide (Ndi) acceptors have been exploited in the folding and self-assembly of a variety of complex molecular systems in solution. Here, we report the use of Dan and Ndi derivatives to direct assembly of extended columns with alternating face-centered stacked structure in the solid state. A variety of 1:1 Dan:Ndi mixtures produced mesophases that were found to be stable over temperature ranges extending up to 110 degrees C. Analysis of these mesophases indicates mixtures with soft/plastic crystal phases and a few mixtures with the thermodynamic properties of true liquid crystals, all composed of alternating donor-acceptor columns within. Importantly, a correspondence was found between the clearing and crystallization points of the mesophase mixtures and the melting/clearing points of the component Ndi and Dan units, respectively. This correspondence enables the predictable tuning of mesophase phase transition temperatures. The study of sterically hindered derivatives led to a set of mixtures in which a dramatic and sudden color change (deep red to yellow) was observed upon crystallization of the mesophase due to a phase separation of the component donor and acceptor units.