Issue 34, 2019

Insight into the self-assembly of water-soluble perylene bisimide derivatives through a combined computational and experimental approach

Abstract

We use a combination of computational and experimental techniques to study the self-assembly and gelation of water-soluble perylene bisimides derivatised at the imide position with an amino acid. Specifically, we study the likely structure of self-assembled aggregates of the alanine-functionalised perylene bisimide (PBI-A) and the thermodynamics of their formation using density functional theory and predict the UV-vis spectra of such aggregates using time-dependent density functional theory. We compare these predictions to experiments in which we study the evolution of the UV-Vis and NMR spectra and the rheology and neutron scattering of alkaline PBI-A solutions when gradually decreasing the pH. Based on the combined computational and experimental results, we show that PBI-A self-assembles at all pH values but that aggregates grow in size upon protonation. Hydrogel formation is driven not by aggregate growth but reduction of the aggregation surface-charge and a decrease in the colloidal stability of the aggregation with respect to agglomeration.

Graphical abstract: Insight into the self-assembly of water-soluble perylene bisimide derivatives through a combined computational and experimental approach

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
07 May 2019
Accepted
05 Aug 2019
First published
06 Aug 2019
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Nanoscale, 2019,11, 15917-15928

Insight into the self-assembly of water-soluble perylene bisimide derivatives through a combined computational and experimental approach

E. R. Draper, L. Wilbraham, D. J. Adams, M. Wallace, R. Schweins and M. A. Zwijnenburg, Nanoscale, 2019, 11, 15917 DOI: 10.1039/C9NR03898A

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