Kinetically Controlled Sequential Growth of Surface-Grafted Chiral Supramolecular Copolymers.

We report a facile strategy to grow supramolecular copolymers on Au surfaces by successively exposing a surface-anchored monomer to solutions of oppositely charged peptide comonomers. Charge regulation on the active chain end of the polymer sufficiently slows down the kinetics of the self-assembly process to produce kinetically trapped copolymers at near-neutral pH. We thereby achieve architectural control at three levels: The β-sheet sequences direct the polymerization away from the surface, the height of the supramolecular copolymer brushes is well-controlled by the stepwise nature of the alternating copolymer growth, and 2D spatial resolution is realized by using micropatterned initiatin…