Macromolecular crystallization has many implications in biological and materials science. Similar to the crystallization of other molecules, macromolecular crystallization conventionally considers a critical nucleus, followed by crystallographic packing of macromolecules to drive further crystal growth. Here, we discover a distinctive macromolecular crystallization pathway by developing a concept of macromolecular mesocrystal. We underline this nonclassical polymer crystallization by the mesoscale self-assembly of biomacromolecular nanocrystals. This new understanding of macromolecular crystallization is fundamental and relevant to many fields, including materials science, chemistry, biomimetics, nanoscience and structural biology.
Fei Tao (a), Qian Han (a), Kaiqiang Liu, Peng Yang*. Tuning Crystallization Pathways through Mesoscale Assembly of Biomacromolecular Nanocrystals.
a. both of them contributed equally to this work.
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. in press (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 10.1002/anie.201706843
Angew. Chem. 10.1002/ange.201706843).