The development of self-assembly strategies for well-studied biopolymers is an important route to complex and functional nanostructures. Here, we report the self-assembly of a stiff polysaccharide, formylated yeast β-glucan, into multiple highly ordered nanostructures from 1D to 3D. This polysaccharide could fold into a two-component helix that consisted of a rod-like helical core and flexible coronas. Annealing in formic acid can trigger the cross-linking of the coronas, resulting in the packing of helices into rod-like, sheet-like, or tube-like supramolecular nanostructures. The specific morphology of the resultant assemblies can be controlled by different annealing conditions such as annealing speed or polymer concentrations. Owing to the presence of reductant formyl groups, these β-glucan nanostructures can reduce silver ions in situ, leading to the guided assembly of ultrathin silver nanowires, silver-polymer nanorods, and silver-polymer necklaces.
Keywords: glucan; helix; nanotube; nanowires; self-assembly; silver.