Invertible Nanofibers with Tunable Stiffness from Self-Assembly of an Amphiphilic Wedge-Coil Molecule

We have prepared an amphiphilic wedge-coil molecule consisting of a hydrophobic wedge-like segment and a hydrophilic poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) segment. The wedge-coil block molecule self-assembles into cylindrical nanofibers in both polar as well as nonpolar solvents. Remarkably, the resulting nanofibers, as solvent polarity change from water to n-hexane, change from highly flexible coil-like to stiff rod-like characteristics. This dynamic switching in the stiffness of the nanofibers in response to solvent polarity is attributed to the structural inversion of cylindrical core from bulky dendritic segments with amorphous nature to crystallizable linear PEO segments.