TY - JOUR
T1 - Self-assembly of a layered two-dimensional molecularly woven fabric
AU - August, David P.
AU - Dryfe, Robert A.W.
AU - Haigh, Sarah J.
AU - Kent, Paige R.C.
AU - Leigh, David A.
AU - Lemonnier, Jean François
AU - Li, Zheling
AU - Muryn, Christopher A.
AU - Palmer, Leoni I.
AU - Song, Yiwei
AU - Whitehead, George F.S.
AU - Young, Robert J.
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements We thank the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC; EP/P027067/1), the European Research Council (ERC; Advanced Grant no. 786630), and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA; Co-operative Agreement W911NF-17-2-0148) for funding; with networking contributions from the COST Action CA17139, EUTOPIA. The views, opinions and/or findings expressed are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the official views or policies of the Department of Defense or the US Government. We also thank the Diamond Light Source (UK) for synchrotron beam time on I19 (XR029), the University of Manchester, Department of Chemistry microanalysis and mass spectrometry services, the Henry Royce Institute for Advanced Materials (funded through EPSRC grants EP/R00661X/1 and EP/P025021/1) for the use of facilities, S. Jantzen/ Biocinematics for the video animations, and S. J. Rowan (University of Chicago) and R. P. Sijbesma (Eindhoven University) for comments that improved the draft manuscript. D.A.L. is a Royal Society Research Professor.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.
PY - 2020/12/16
Y1 - 2020/12/16
N2 - Fabrics—materials consisting of layers of woven fibres—are some of the most important materials in everyday life1. Previous nanoscale weaves2–16 include isotropic crystalline covalent organic frameworks12–14 that feature rigid helical strands interlaced in all three dimensions, rather than the two-dimensional17,18 layers of flexible woven strands that give conventional textiles their characteristic flexibility, thinness, anisotropic strength and porosity. A supramolecular two-dimensional kagome weave15 and a single-layer, surface-supported, interwoven two-dimensional polymer16 have also been reported. The direct, bottom-up assembly of molecular building blocks into linear organic polymer chains woven in two dimensions has been proposed on a number of occasions19–23, but has not previously been achieved. Here we demonstrate that by using an anion and metal ion template, woven molecular ‘tiles’ can be tessellated into a material consisting of alternating aliphatic and aromatic segmented polymer strands, interwoven within discrete layers. Connections between slowly precipitating pre-woven grids, followed by the removal of the ion template, result in a wholly organic molecular material that forms as stacks and clusters of thin sheets—each sheet up to hundreds of micrometres long and wide but only about four nanometres thick—in which warp and weft single-chain polymer strands remain associated through periodic mechanical entanglements within each sheet. Atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy show clusters and, occasionally, isolated individual sheets that, following demetallation, have slid apart from others with which they were stacked during the tessellation and polymerization process. The layered two-dimensional molecularly woven material has long-range order, is birefringent, is twice as stiff as the constituent linear polymer, and delaminates and tears along well-defined lines in the manner of a macroscopic textile. When incorporated into a polymer-supported membrane, it acts as a net, slowing the passage of large ions while letting smaller ions through.
AB - Fabrics—materials consisting of layers of woven fibres—are some of the most important materials in everyday life1. Previous nanoscale weaves2–16 include isotropic crystalline covalent organic frameworks12–14 that feature rigid helical strands interlaced in all three dimensions, rather than the two-dimensional17,18 layers of flexible woven strands that give conventional textiles their characteristic flexibility, thinness, anisotropic strength and porosity. A supramolecular two-dimensional kagome weave15 and a single-layer, surface-supported, interwoven two-dimensional polymer16 have also been reported. The direct, bottom-up assembly of molecular building blocks into linear organic polymer chains woven in two dimensions has been proposed on a number of occasions19–23, but has not previously been achieved. Here we demonstrate that by using an anion and metal ion template, woven molecular ‘tiles’ can be tessellated into a material consisting of alternating aliphatic and aromatic segmented polymer strands, interwoven within discrete layers. Connections between slowly precipitating pre-woven grids, followed by the removal of the ion template, result in a wholly organic molecular material that forms as stacks and clusters of thin sheets—each sheet up to hundreds of micrometres long and wide but only about four nanometres thick—in which warp and weft single-chain polymer strands remain associated through periodic mechanical entanglements within each sheet. Atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy show clusters and, occasionally, isolated individual sheets that, following demetallation, have slid apart from others with which they were stacked during the tessellation and polymerization process. The layered two-dimensional molecularly woven material has long-range order, is birefringent, is twice as stiff as the constituent linear polymer, and delaminates and tears along well-defined lines in the manner of a macroscopic textile. When incorporated into a polymer-supported membrane, it acts as a net, slowing the passage of large ions while letting smaller ions through.
U2 - 10.1038/s41586-020-3019-9
DO - 10.1038/s41586-020-3019-9
M3 - Article
C2 - 33328664
AN - SCOPUS:85097612342
SN - 0028-0836
VL - 588
SP - 429
EP - 435
JO - Nature
JF - Nature
IS - 7838
ER -