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Mimicking the diverse glyco-conjugate structures in nature is always the dream of scientists. Right now, hierarchical self-assembled structures of natural conjugates of peptides and sugars could not easily be achieved via linear glycopolypeptide with monosaccharides as attachments. In this work, by using a series of well-designed alternating amphiphilic glycopolypeptide brushes (AAGBs) with pendants of glycodendrons and short peptides, various self-assembled morphologies were achieved, including nanowires, nanoribbon, and compound micelles mainly depending on the number ratio of the sugar units to the amino acids species (S/F). Among these morphologies, nanowire attracted our great attention. TEM studies demonstrated that it is formed via a hierarchical self-assembly, i.e., a series of successive processes, including micellization, micelles alignment forming nanofilament, branching of the nanofilaments by micelles, and finally nanowire formation. As far as we know, such hierarchical self-assembly process with high complexity has not been observed in literature for glycopolypeptides even polypeptides, which will deepen our understanding on self-assembly mechanism of natural glyco-conjugates and expand the library of biomimetic materials.

We present an assembly of cationic and anionic microgels at the air/water interface. Monodispersed, micrometer-sized, and oppositely charged microgels were synthesized by aqueous free-radical precipitation polymerization by using N-isopropylmethacrylamide, comonomers, and cross-linkers. The oppositely charged microgels were prepared by using different types of water-soluble initiators. These microgels were mixed in a solution to assemble them at the air/water interface. In particular, linear and branched chainlike structures of the microgels were spontaneously formed at the air/water interface. Effects of salt concentration, microgel concentration, and number ratio of cationic and anionic microgels on the structures of microgel assembly were investigated by optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy.

Single-phase TiC nanotubes were successfully synthesized for the first time, by the reaction of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with Ti powder at 1300 °C for 30 h. CNTs equipped with TiC nanoparticles and TiC nanowires were synthesized along with these single-phase TiC nanotubes, and the number ratio of single-phase TiC nanotubes to these other products was very small. According to the core and low-energy electron energy loss spectra taken from CNTs and the CNTs reacted with Ti powder, the ratio of Ti to C in TiC nanowire was higher than that in TiC nanotubes and the ratio in CNT equipped with TiC nanoparticles was the lowest. Three different types of TiC nanomaterials, TiC nanowires, TiC nanotubes, and CNTs equipped with TiC nanoparticles, as well as unreacted CNTs, were observed in this study, possibly because the concentration of Ti vapor decreased with increase in depth from the surface of CNT aggregates. A partly single-crystalline TiC nanotube was also observed.