Work

Impact of vibrational strong coupling on liquid–liquid phase separation in supramolecular polymers

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: light-matter strong coupling, without any chemical or real photon as input. Intrigued by these recent observations, we employed light-matter strong coupling to control LLPS driven by non-covalent high aspect ratio supramolecular polymers. Studies using confocal microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and dynamic light scattering revealed that the energy landscape of the supramolecular polymerization of ureido-pyrimidinone glycine (UPy-Gly) fibrils is modified when the vibrational bands of the molecular components are strongly coupled to the optical mode of the Fabry-Perot cavity, leading to the deceleration of LLPS kinetics. Moreover, strong coupling persists in retarding LLPS kinetics even in the presence of a macromolecular crowder, however the effect is mitigated by the crowder. This offers insights into the fundamentals of strong coupling. Additionally, these results reinforce the finding that a critical fibril length is required for LLPS initiation. This study underscores the potential of light-matter strong coupling in tuning the behavior and assembly of supramolecular systems.

Source: Chemical Science

DOI: 10.1039/d5sc04149j