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Herein, we report the rich morphological and conformational versatility of a biologically active peptide (PEP‐1), which follows diverse self‐assembly pathways to form up to six distinct nanostructures and up to four different secondary structures through subtle modulation in pH, concentration and temperature. PEP‐1 forms twisted β‐sheet secondary structures and nanofibers at pH 7.4, which transform into fractal‐like structures with strong β‐sheet conformations at pH 13.0 or short disorganized elliptical aggregates at pH 5.5. Upon dilution at pH 7.4, the nanofibers with twisted β‐sheet secondary structural elements convert into nanoparticles with random coil conformations. Interestingly, these two self‐assembled states at pH 7.4 and room temperature are kinetically controlled and undergo a further transformation into thermodynamically stable states upon thermal annealing: whereas the twisted β‐sheet structures and corresponding nanofibers transform into 2D sheets with well‐defined β‐sheet domains, the nanoparticles with random coil structures convert into short nanorods with α‐helix conformations. Notably, PEP‐1 also showed high biocompatibility, low hemolytic activity and marked antibacterial activity, rendering our system a promising candidate for multiple bio‐applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein we describe the H‐bonding‐regulated nanostructure, thermodynamics, and multivalent binding of two bolaamphiphiles NDI‐1 and NDI‐2 consisting of a hydrophobic naphthalene diimide connected to a hydrophilic wedge by a H‐bonding group and a glucose moiety on its two arms. NDI‐1 and NDI‐2 differ by the single H‐bonding group, namely, hydrazide or amide, which triggers the formation of vesicles and cylindrical micelles, respectively. Although the extended H‐bonding ensures stacking with head‐to‐head orientation and the formation of an array of the appended glucose moieties in both systems, the adaptive cylindrical structure exhibited superior multivalent binding with concanavalin A (ConA) to that of the vesicle. A control amphiphile lacking a H‐bonding group assembled with a random lateral orientation to produce spherical micelles without any notable multivalent binding. Bonded with a purpose: Two bolaamphiphiles consisting of a hydrophobic naphthalene diimide unit connected at one end to a hydrophilic wedge by a H‐bonding group (hydrazide or amide) and at the other to a glucose moiety showed distinct H‐bonding‐regulated behavior with the formation of vesicles or cylindrical micelles (see picture). The adaptive cylindrical micelles formed by amide H‐bonding exhibited superior multivalent binding with concanavalin A. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A naphthalene diimide (NDI) building block containing hydrazide (H1) and hydroxy (H2) groups self-assembled into a reverse-vesicular structure in methylcyclohexane by orthogonal H-bonding and π-stacking. At an elevated temperature (LCST=43 °C), destruction of the assembled structure owing to selective dissociation of H2-H2 H bonding led to macroscopic precipitation. Further heating resulted in homogeneous redispersion of the sample at 70 °C (UCST) and the formation of a reverse-micellar structure. In the presence of a pyridine (H3)-functionalized pyrene (PY) donor, a supramolecular dyad (NDI-PY) was formed by H2-H3 H-bonding. Slow transformation into an alternate NDI-PY stack occurred by a folding process due to the charge-transfer interaction between NDI and PY. The mixed NDI-PY assembly exhibited a morphology transition from a reverse micelle (with a NDI-PY mixed-stack core) below the LCST to another reverse micelle (with a NDI core) above the UCST via a 'denatured' intermediate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]