Tubular supramolecular alternating copolymers fabricated by cyclic peptide–polymer conjugates

Supramolecular copolymers are an emerging class of materials, which bring together different properties and functionalities of multiple components via noncovalent interactions. While it is widely acknowledged that the repeating unit sequence plays an essential role on the performance of these materials, mastering and tuning the supramolecular copolymer sequence is still an open challenge. To date, only statistical supramolecular copolymers have been reported using cyclic peptide–polymer conjugates as building blocks. To enrich the diversity of tubular supramolecular copolymers, we report here a strategy of controlling their sequences by introducing an extra complementary noncovalent interaction. Hence, two conjugates bearing one electron donor and one electron acceptor, respectively, are designed. The two conjugates can individually assemble into tubular supramolecular homopolymers driven by the multiple hydrogen bonding interactions between cyclic peptides. However, the complementary charge transfer interaction between the electron donor and acceptor makes each conjugate more favorable for complexing with its counterpart, resulting in an alternating sequence of the supramolecular copolymer. Following the same principle, more functional supramolecular alternating copolymers are expected to be designed and constructed via other complementary noncovalent interactions (electrostatic interactions, metal coordination interactions, and host–guest interactions, etc.).