Non-trivial stimuli-responsive collective behaviours emerging from microscopic dynamic complexity in supramolecular polymer systems

Martina Crippa, Claudio Perego () and Giovanni M. Pavan ()
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Martina Crippa: Politecnico di Torino
Claudio Perego: University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland, Polo Universitario Lugano, Campus Est
Giovanni M. Pavan: Politecnico di Torino

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Abstract Supramolecular polymers are composed of monomers that self-assemble non-covalently generating distributions of fibres in continuous exchange-and-communication with each other and the surroundings. Intriguing collective properties may emerge in such molecular-scale complex systems, following mechanisms often difficult to ascertain. Here we show how non-trivial collective behaviours may emerge in dynamical supramolecular polymer systems already at low-complexity levels. We combine minimalistic models, simulations, and advanced statistical analyses investigating how cooperative and non-cooperative supramolecular polymer systems respond to a specific stimulus: i.e., the addition of molecular sequestrators perturbing their equilibrium. Our data show how, while in a non-cooperative system all assemblies populating the system suffer uniformly the perturbation, in a cooperative system the larger/stronger assemblies survive at the expense of the smaller/weaker entities. Collective behaviours typical of larger-scale and more complex (social, economic, etc.) systems may thus emerge even in relatively simple self-assembling systems from the internal (microscopic) dynamic heterogeneity of their ensembles.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-60150-4

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