l-Histidine Salt-Bridged Monomer Preassembly and Polymerization-Induced Electrostatic Self-Assembly

Salt bridges are predominant in protein construction and stabilization, yet largely unexplored for polymer nanoparticle synthesis. We herein report the use of l-histidine salt bridges to drive monomer preassembly and two-dimensional electrostatic self-assembly in aqueous photo-RAFT polymerization. l-histidine salt bridges drive the monomer clustering nucleation, complex coacervation, and Coulombic stabilization, leading to the 2 nm ultrasmall clusters and coacervate droplets. Homopolymerization leads to a precision two-dimensional electrostatic self-assembly via a droplet-monolayer-multilayer transition, i.e., salt-bridged homo-polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA). Block copolymerization does not disturb the “salt-bridged homo-PISA” mechanism. Enhanced Coulombic repulsion via seeded polymerization of charged monomers using as-achieved multilayer lamellae (seeds) yields supercharged 5 nm ultrathin monolayer lamellae with high colloidal stability upon dilution, salting, and long-term storage, urgently needed for bioapplications. This work opens up a new avenue to use amino acid salt bridges for PISA synthesis of biologically important, yet hitherto inaccessible, salt-resistant ultrathin polyelectrolyte complex nanomaterials.