Journal article

Supramolecular Assembly of Charge-Tunable Metal–Phenolic Networks

Chan-Jin Kim, Yuang Gu, Wanjun Xu, Subin Shin, Omid Mazaheri, John F Quinn, Frank Caruso

Chemistry of Materials | American Chemical Society | Published : 2025

Abstract

Controlling the surface charge of nanoassembled structures enables modulation of their physicochemical properties and expands their applications. Metal–phenolic networks (MPNs) typically yield materials with negatively charged surfaces. Herein, MPNs with tunable surface charge were prepared using biscatechol-functionalized poly(2-vinylpyridine) (P2VP) and various metal ions. The first assembly route yielded P2VP–FeIII MPN capsules that displayed pH-dependent surface charge reversal (∼ −10 mV at pH 12 to 20 mV at pH 2) and facilitated the fabrication of hollow superstructures. Besides the catechol–metal interaction, the pyridinyl nitrogen–metal coordination facilitated the continuous assembly..

View full abstract

Grants

Awarded by National Research Foundation of Korea


Funding Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC) through the Discovery Project (DP200100713) scheme. C.-J.K. acknowledges a research grant for new professors at Gyeongsang National University (GNU-2024-240040) and "Regional Innovation Strategy (RIS)" through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (MOE) (2021RIS-003). J.F.Q. acknowledges receipt of a Future Fellowship (FT170100144) from the ARC. This work was performed in part at the Materials Characterisation and Fabrication Platform at The University of Melbourne, the Ian Holmes Imaging Centre at the Bio21 Institute, and the Victorian Node of the Australian National Fabrication Facility.