Design and synthesis of novel photo-responsive thymine bolaamphiphiles & their self-assembling structures

In this thesis, topochemical principles were used to create light responsive materials by designing and synthesising self-assembling structures. The incorporation of photodimerising units such as thymine is expected to enhance photo-chemical reaction and polymerisation throughout the self-assemblies. Several photo-responsive self-assemblies based on bio-inspired bolaamphiphiles with oligo (ethylene oxide) hydrophilic outer segments and a hydrophobic inner segment with thymine were synthesised. These self-assembling structures were designed so they meet the criteria governing the photroreactivity of molecules. The morphology and the molecular weight of the self-assemblies after the UV irradiation were investigated by several techniques including NMR, GPC, DLS, TEM. And the potential structures of bolaamphiphiles are also studied using the computational simulations.