Liquid-Phase Condensation via Macromolecular Crowding in Polymerization-Induced Electrostatic Self-Assembly
- 21 October 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Chemical Society (ACS) in ACS Macro Letters
- Vol. 10 (11), 1410-1415
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acsmacrolett.1c00557
Abstract
Macromolecular crowding plays a key role in liquid-phase condensation of proteins and membraneless organelles yet is largely unexplored for artificial liquid materials. Herein, we present a strategy for direct access to multiphase liquid condensates with individual charged/neutral subdomains, by introducing macromolecular crowding to our previous protocol of liquid–liquid phase-separation-driven polymerization-induced electrostatic self-assembly (LLPS-PIESA). We show that reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) aqueous dispersion photo-copolymerization of a charged monomer with a specific neutral monomer, in the presence of a polar macrochain transfer agent (CTA) and an oppositely charged polyion, can induce self-sorting and macromolecular crowding. LLPS-PIESA proceeds via liquid-phase condensation of as-assembled nascent clusters up to biologically important nanostructured multiphase condensates with individual charged/neutral subdomains.Keywords
Funding Information
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (21774083, 21971179)
- Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions
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