Self-assembly of supra-amphiphile of azobenzenegalactopyranoside based on dynamic covalent bond and its dual responses

In this paper, dynamic covalent bond has been employed to construct supra-amphiphile of carbohydrate for the first time. In neutral environment, the molecule was fabricated by reacting a hydrophobic building block bearing benzoic aldehyde with a hydrophilic building block bearing hydrazine to form a sugar-containing supra-amphiphile based on acylhydrazone bond. The obtained azobenzenegalactopyranoside (Azo-Gal) supra-amphiphile self-assembled to fibrillar structure in water, which showed dual responses to UV light and pH.