Tunable Self-assembly Property Via Chemical Modification of Guanine-based Liquid Crystalline Molecule for Deriving Structure and Controlling Stability

Abstract

Guanine is one of the nucleobases which can form supramolecular structure into ribbon-like / tetrad structure depending on concentration, cations, and temperature. Recently, Guanine-derived materials have received attention for developing biocompatible hydrogel, biosensor, and artificial channel because of their unique supramolecular self-assembly and biocompatibility. The physical and self-healing properties can be regulated by modulating their self-assembly property. Herein, we developed tunable guanine-based liquid crystalline through chemical modification such as attachment of functional groups or changing the location of attached peripheral groups. In the presence of alkali cations, guanine molecules usually form quartets and further quadruplexes. However, these molecules attached the peripheral group to N7 position do not form quadruplex structures even in the presence of cation. In addition, modification with simple functional groups to N2 position not only facilitates to form the structure of the quadruplex well but also improves the stability of the structure. This simple chemical modification showed the potential about the guanine-based biomimetic functional materials by inducing the desired structure and controlling the stability.