Figure 1.

Energy landscapes and pathway selection of Janus dendrimer self-assemblies. (a) Design of molecular building blocks. The molecules of Janus dendrimers consist of hydrophilic OEG with different end groups (–OCH₃ or –OH) and hydrophobic dodecyloxy chains on the phenolic acid units. These two amphiphilic blocks are connected by a pentaerythritol core. (b) Schematic representation of the temperature-induced interdigitation and noninterdigitation of OEG chains from Janus dendrimer molecules. (c) Free energy landscapes of Janus dendrimer assemblies. Different end groups of the OEG blocks are designed to modulate the competing interactions, which results in distinct pathway selections.