Read the full article here: Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. DOI:10.1002/anie.202003102 (2020). Fuel‐driven self‐assemblies are gaining ground for creating autonomous systems and materials, whose temporal behavior is preprogrammed by a reaction network. However, up to now there is a lack of simple external control mechanisms of the transient behavior, at best using remote and benign light control. Even more challenging is to use different wavelengths to modulate different components of

Read the full article here: Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 59, 5515 (2020). We introduce divalent 3D DNA origami cuboids as truly monodisperse colloids and harness their ability for precision functionalization with defined patches and defined numbers of supramolecular binding motifs. We demonstrate that even adamantane/β‐cyclodextrin host/guest inclusion complexes of moderate association strength can induce efficient supracolloidal fibrillization at high dilution of the 3D DNA Origami

Read the full article here: Biomacromolecules DOI:10.1021/acs.biomac.0c00330 (2020). Nanocellulose-based materials and nanocomposites show extraordinary mechanical properties with high stiffness, strength, and toughness. Although the last decade has witnessed great progress in understanding the mechanical properties of these materials, a crucial challenge is to identify pathways to introduce high wet strength, which is a critical parameter for commercial applications. Because

Read the full article here: J. Membr. Sci. 600, 117854 (2020). Monovalent ion selective membranes are permeable for monovalent ions while rejecting divalent ions to some extent. Different processes and applications like electrodialysis, microbial fuel cells, and flow batteries utilize such selective properties. Industrial membranes have a specific coating of equal charge to reject the bivalent counter ions. It has been suggested in the past that the current density regime at

Read the full article here: Adv. Healthcare Mater. 2020, 9, 1901658. To replicate functional liver tissue in vitro for drug testing or transplantation, 3D tissue engineering requires representative cell models as well as scaffolds that not only promote tissue production but also are applicable in a clinical setting. Recently, adult liver‐derived liver organoids are found to be of much interest due to their genetic stability, expansion potential, and ability to differentiate t

Read the full article here: Macromolecules 2020, 53, 5, 1716-1725 Nacre-mimetic nanocomposites based on high fractions of synthetic high-aspect-ratio nanoclays in combination with polymers are continuously pushing boundaries for advanced material properties, such as high barrier against oxygen, extraordinary mechanical behavior, fire shielding, and glass-like transparency. Additionally, they provide interesting model systems to study polymers under nanoconfinement due to the

Read the full article here: J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2020, 142, 2, 685 We introduce pathway complexity on a multicomponent systems level in chemically fueled transient DNA polymerization systems, achieving autonomous evolution over multiple structural dynamic steady states from monomers to dimers, oligomers of dimers, and randomized polymer structures before being ultimately degraded back to monomers once the fuel is consumed. The enabling key principle is to design monomer species

Read the full article here: ACS Macro Lett. 2020, 9, 1, 70 We demonstrate waterborne, unimolecularly dissolved vitrimer prepolymer systems that can be transferred into a vitrimer material using catalytic transesterification. The one-component prepolymer system can be processed via film casting and subsequent heat-induced cross-linking. A variation of the density of side chain hydroxy groups over ester and amide groups in the methacrylate/methacrylamide backbone, as well as of

Read the full article here: Adv. Funct. Mater. 1905309 (2019). Bioinspired nanocomposites have made great progress for the fabrication of mechanical high‐performance structural materials, but their properties have thus far been engineered with a focus on static behavior. This contrasts profoundly with the dynamic reconfiguration often observed in living tissues. Here, a first concept is introduced for steady‐state, light‐adaptive reconfiguration of mechanical patterns in bioi