Anisotropic Synthetic Allomelanin Materials via Solid‐State Polymerization of Self‐Assembled 1,8‐Dihydroxynaphthalene Dimers
Abstract
Melanosomes in nature have diverse morphologies, including spheres, rods, and platelets. By contrast, shapes of synthetic melanins have been almost entirely limited to spherical nanoparticles with few exceptions produced by complex templated synthetic methods. Here, we report a non‐templated method to access synthetic melanins with a variety of architectures including spheres, sheets, and platelets. Three 1,8‐dihydroxynaphthalene dimers (4‐4′, 2‐4′ and 2‐2′) were used as self‐assembling synthons. These dimers pack to form well‐defined structures of varying morphologies depending on the isomer. Specifically, distinctive ellipsoidal platelets can be obtained using 4‐4′ dimers. Solid‐state polymerization of the preorganized dimers generates polymeric synthetic melanins while maintaining the initial particle morphologies. This work provides a new route to anisotropic synthetic melanins, where the building blocks are preorganized into specific shapes, followed by solid‐state polymerization.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Jun 24, 2021
- Source ID
- 10.1002/ange.202103447
Entities
People
- Arthi Jayaraman
- Christopher J. Forman
- Christos D Malliakas
- Hao Sun
- Julia Oktawiec
- Liliana D'Alba
- Matthew D. Shawkey
- Matthew P. Thompson
- Naneki C McCallum
- Nathan C. Gianneschi
- Omar Farha
- Utkarsh Kapoor
- Wei Cao
- Xinyi Gong
- Xuhao Zhou
- Ziying Hu
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Ghent University
- Northwestern University
- University of Delaware