Supramolecular materials are typically obtained from a solvent environment, while the assembled nano-structures always affected and unpredictably changed by irreversible evaporation of solvents, which brings great challenges for the precise controlling of assembled structures. Herein, a drying-mediated and thioether bond activated chiral inversion assembly behavior of organic/inorganic nano-building blocks polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) was investigated. The POSS was modified by eight methylated terminal cysteine, while the existence of thioether bond could capture the hydrogen bonds belonging to amide groups during drying process, resulting in weaken of the inter-molecular hydrogen bonds and displacing the stacking of the nano-building blocks, which activates the forming of super-helical structures opposite to the original chirality. This research reveals the solvent-induced chiral assembly principle of the giant molecules and helpful for the construction of the precise architecture.

中文翻译：

---

深入了解纳米构件的干燥介导和硫醚键激活手性反转组装

超分子材料通常是在溶剂环境中获得的，而组装的纳米结构总是会受到溶剂不可逆蒸发的影响和不可预测的变化，这给组装结构的精确控制带来了巨大的挑战。在此，研究了有机/无机纳米结构单元多面体低聚倍半硅氧烷（POSS）的干燥介导和硫醚键激活的手性反转组装行为。 POSS被八个甲基化的末端半胱氨酸修饰，而硫醚键的存在可以在干燥过程中捕获属于酰胺基团的氢键，导致分子间氢键减弱并取代纳米构件的堆叠，它激活了与原始手性相反的超螺旋结构的形成。该研究揭示了溶剂诱导的大分子手性组装原理，有助于构建精确的结构。