Fig. 2. Replication of a 3-mer template using salt bridge base-pairs with cleavable linkers. Mixing the template with the monomers leads to self-assembly of the pre-ZIP intermediate due to salt bridge formation. CuAAC oligomerization in the presence of the 4-tert-butylbenzyl azide capping agent leads to the non-covalent duplex. Hydrolysis of the esters in the cleave step removes the amidines to regenerate the template and release the copy strand.