From tires to clothes to shampoo, many ubiquitous products are made with polymers, large chain-like molecules made of smaller subunits called monomers, bonded together. Now, a team of researchers from the University of Delaware and the University of Pennsylvania, with primary support from the U.S. Department of Energy Biomolecular Materials Program, has created a new fundamental unit of polymers that could usher in a new era of materials discovery.
Bundlemers to Create Hybrid Nanomaterials
The researchers designed and created rigid, self-assembling, customizable polymer chains by linking together new building blocks called bundlemers — a term coined at UD. They recently described their work in the journal Nature.
To create bundlemers, the team assembled four individual peptides, themselves short chains of amino acids, into nanoscopic cylinders. The bundlemer cylinders are then linked together, end-to-end, through a highly efficient and controlled series of chemical reactions known as “click” chemistry.
The resulting polymer chains are rigid, rod-like molecules that are based in biology yet do not exist in nature. Bundlemer chains can then be modified with components such as synthetic polymers or inorganic nanoparticles to create new hybrid nanomaterials.
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There’s a basic premise in materials that if you can control function and structure, then you can essentially build anything,” said Chris Kloxin, study author and assistant professor of materials science and engineering and chemical and biomolecular engineering at UD.
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We have a very well-defined structural unit, this bundlemer, upon which we have the ability to add chemical functionality at any location.”
Multiple Applications and Properties
Because of their rigidity and customizability, bundlemers could be used to design new materials with a wide range of applications, from high-performance fibers to single-use plastics to biologics, medicines that employ biological components instead of traditional chemistries. Biopharmaceutical research and development is a growing area of expertise at UD, home to the National Institute of Innovation in Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing (NIIMBL).
Our idea is that these bundlemers truly are building blocks in every sense of the word. We are going to build many, many materials and technologies out of these building blocks,” said Pochan.
The Future of Bundlemers
Next, the team aims to make bundlemers more accessible, easier to synthesize, and scalable. Scientists around the world could use bundlemers to address a wide variety of grand challenges in engineering.
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These are tools for anybody to use, whether you’re a chemist, engineer, or physicist,” said Pochan. “
It's hard to think of an equivalent material or experimental tool people use widely. It’s like a toolbox for anybody to design future things.”
Source: University of Delaware