Temporally-Programmed Transient Supramolecular Gels.

In living systems, self-assembly processes are driven by the consumption of chemical fuels. Synthetic adaptation of living systems can be achieved by coupling of competing pathways that drive the assembly and disassembly, respectively, under the influence of chemical fuels. Here, a pH-responsive transient gel system is created by simultaneous incorporation of two triggers, of which one is responsible for the initiation of the self-assembly by increasing the pH and the second trigger drives the disassembly by reducing the pH. This method allows us to prepare transient gels with a high degree of control over the self-assembly lifetime as well as the mechanical properties of the transient gels.