Life-like Supramolecular Materials based on Reaction Cycles with Designed Feedback

Project Information

Life-Cycle

Grant agreement ID: 757910

DOI

10.3030/757910

Project closed

EC signature date 21 November 2017

Start date 1 January 2018

End date 31 March 2023

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 1 762 488,00

EU contribution

€ 1 762 488,00

Coordinated by

CENTRE INTERNATIONAL DE RECHERCHE AUX FRONTIERES DE LA CHIMIE FONDATION
France

Periodic Reporting for period 4 - Life-Cycle (Life-like Supramolecular Materials based on Reaction Cycles with Designed Feedback)

Reporting period: 2022-07-01 to 2023-03-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The “Life-Cycle” ERC proposal aims to develop a new class of artificial supramolecular materials that are kept in sustained non-equilibrium states by continuous dissipation of chemical fuels. Said more simply, we aim to develop artificial materials that have an internal metabolism, materials that need “food” (or as we call it “chemical fuel”), and excrete waste. Supramolecular polymers in current artificial materials stick together through weak reversible bonds that can be exchange by thermal energy. In contrast, natural supramolecular polymers such as those in the cytoskeletal network use chemical fuels such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to achieve an incredible adaptivity, motility, growth, and response to external inputs. Development of chemically fueled artificial supramolecular polymers should therefore lead to more life-like materials that could perform functions so far reserved only for living beings. In the long term, we hope our life-like materials can engage in two-way communication with living beings or tissues, and result in improvements in (regenerative) medicine and in materials science in general.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

We have developed 4 different reaction cycles that can control self-assembling systems. Two of these cycles have given rise to oscillations, which are often found in biological systems, such as in microtubules. Another cycle gave rise to a new material, which has a time programmable life-time of disappearance. That is, depending on the amount of chemical fuels added to the material, it will disassemble for a well-defined time, and then reassemble again. The latest general of such complex material is one that undergoes several transitions between a free-flowing liquid and a gel. Specifically, a sol-->gel-->sol-->gel-->sol system was developed that can operate without intervention by a scientist or without any external control (like a computer or control-board).

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Our current focus is on life-like materials that have an internal mechanism to produce their own fuels and recycle the waste they produce, in order to stay away from the thermodynamic equilibrium (that is “death”) for extended periods of time. The materials properties of such life-like artificial systems are virtually unexplored. In addition, we have developed a comprehensive mathematical framework to describe chemically fueled materials that can be used to design a future generation of complex autonomous materials.

self-assembled system depending on the consumption of a chemical fuel