Solvent Induced Morphological Evolution of Cholesterol Based Glucose Tailored Amphiphiles: Transformation from Vesicles to Nanoribbons.

Supramolecular self-assembly of low molecular mass amphiphiles is of topical interest with the urge to achieve precise control over the formation of various self-aggregated structures. Particularly, fabrication of multifarious nanostructures from single molecular backbone would be highly advantageous for task specific applications of the self-aggregates. To this end, the present study reports the solvent triggered evolution of hierarchical self-assembled structures of cholesterol based glucose appended amphiphiles and the pathway of structural transition. The amphiphiles formed bilayered vesicles in water and gels in different organic solvents. In DMSO-water solvent mixture, it showed gradual transition in the morphology of self-aggregates from vesicle-to-fiber and intermediate morphologies depending on the solvent compositions. Microscopic and spectroscopic investigations showed that morphological transformation took place through fusion, elongation and twisting of self-aggregates owing to the reorganization of the amphiphiles (H-type to J-type) in varied solvent polarity. Moreover, sheetlike molecular organization originating from hydrogen bonding and solvophobic interaction played a vital role in the formation of nanoribbons that led to the formation of gel fibril network. This study endows a new strategy to develop solvent induced multistructured self-aggregates from a single molecular scaffold, unraveling the route of forming hierarchical self-assembly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]