Abstract
One hundred years ago Hermann Staudinger was strongly criticized by his scientific peers for his macromolecular hypothesis, but today it is hard to imagine a world without polymers. His hypothesis described polymers as macromolecules composed of large numbers of structural units connected by covalent bonds. In the 1990s the concept of supramolecular polymers emerged in the scientific literature as discrete entities of large molar mass comparable to that of classical polymers but built through non-covalent bonds among monomers. Supramolecular polymers exist in biological systems, and potentially blend the physical properties of covalent polymers with unique features such as high degrees of internal order within the polymeric structure, defined shapes, and novel dynamics. This trend article provides a summary of seminal contributions in supramolecular polymerization and provides recent examples from the Stupp laboratory to demonstrate the potential applications of an exciting class of materials composed fully or partially of supramolecular polymers. In closing, we provide our perspective on future opportunities provided by this field at the onset of a second century of polymers. It is our objective here to demonstrate that this second century could be as prosperous, if not more so, than the preceding one.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | 101310 |
| Journal | Progress in Polymer Science |
| Volume | 111 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 2020 |
Funding
The authors are grateful for funding of the experimental work described here from the Stupp Laboratory by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, under award DE-FG02-00ER45810; the Center for Bio-Inspired Energy Science (CBES), an Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) funded by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences under award number DE-SC0000989; the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research grant 5R01DE015920-10; the National Science Foundation through award DMR-1508731; and the Center for Regenerative Nanomedicine (CRN) at the Simpson Querrey Institute. T.D.C. acknowledges funding support from an American Australian Association Fellowship and the Center for Regenerative Nanomedicine at the Simpson Querrey Institute. The authors wish to acknowledge Mark A. Seniw for his work on molecular graphics and illustrations displayed in the paper. The authors also would like to thank Dr. Liam C. Palmer and Dr. Alexandra N. Edelbrock for their helpful review and edits of this work. The authors are grateful for funding of the experimental work described here from the Stupp Laboratory by the U.S. Department of Energy , Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, under award DE-FG02-00ER45810 ; the Center for Bio-Inspired Energy Science (CBES), an Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) funded by the US Department of Energy , Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences under award number DE-SC0000989 ; the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research grant 5R01DE015920-10 ; the National Science Foundation through award DMR-1508731 ; and the Center for Regenerative Nanomedicine (CRN) at the Simpson Querrey Institute. T.D.C. acknowledges funding support from an American Australian Association Fellowship and the Center for Regenerative Nanomedicine at the Simpson Querrey Institute. The authors wish to acknowledge Mark A. Seniw for his work on molecular graphics and illustrations displayed in the paper. The authors also would like to thank Dr. Liam C. Palmer and Dr. Alexandra N. Edelbrock for their helpful review and edits of this work.
Keywords
- Biomaterials
- Functional polymers
- Hierarchical assembly
- Photocatalysis
- Self-assembly
- Supramolecular polymers
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Ceramics and Composites
- Materials Chemistry
- Polymers and Plastics
- Surfaces and Interfaces
- Organic Chemistry