Jiahao Xia, Peng Zhao, Shuojiong Pan, and Huaping Xu
ACS Macro Lett., 2019, 8, 629−633
Mechanophore is a kind of functional group that can undergo chemical reactions when given mechanical force stimuli. In this paper, osmotic pressure was used as an external force to trigger a diselenide exchange reaction. A diselenide bond containing block polymer capable of self-assembling to a vesicle structure and an ester bond containing a counterpart were synthesized in this study. When NaCl was added into the solution to generate the osmotic pressure difffference inside and outside vesicles, diselenide containing vesicles were ruptured, while the ester bond counterpart stayed still. Further investigation into the chemical composition of both vesicles indicated the occurrence of the diselenide exchange reaction. The osmotic pressure response of the diselenide bond enriched the diselenide dynamic covalent chemistry and offffers a potential application in a controlled release system.
