Qing He, Yu-Fei Ao, Zhi-Tang Huang, De-Xian Wang*

Anion-pi interactions have recently been widely studied as new non-covalent driving forces in supramolecular chemistry. However, anion-pi interactions induced self-assemblies are still largely unexplored. Herein we reported an unprecedented example of supramolecular amphiphiles formation driven by anion-pi interactions, and the subsequent self-assembled vesicles formation in water. By taking the p receptor 1 as the host, and anionic amphiphiles such as sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS), sodium laurate (SLA) and sodium methyl dodecylphosphonate (SDP) as the guests, sequential formation of host-guest supramolecular amphiphiles and self-assembled vesicles were demonstrated by SEM, TEM, DLS and XRD techniques. The intrinsic anion-pi interactions between 1 and the anionic amphiphiles were confirmed by crystal diffraction, HRMS analysis and DFT calculation. Furthermore, the controlled disassembling of the vesicles was achieved either in the presence of competing anions such as NO₃^-, Cl^- and Br^-, or mediated with pH values.

This work has been published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2015, 54, 11785-11790.