Supramolecular materials based on hydrogen-bonded polymers

Combining supramolecular principles with block copolymer self-assembly offers unique possibilities to create materials with responsive and/or tunable properties. The present chapter focuses on supramolecular materials based on hydrogen bonding and (block co-) polymers. Several cases will be discussed where the self-assembled nanostructured morphology can be easily tuned using composition as the natural variable. A large body of the material reviewed concerns hydrogen-bonded side-chain (block co-) polymers. Side chains both with and without mesogenic units are discussed. Frequently the thermoreversibility of the hydrogen bonds allows for responsiveness of material properties to external stimuli such as temperature, pH, and electromagnetic fields. Temperature-dependent photonic bandgap, temperature-dependent proton conductivity, pH-erasable multilayers, temperature-induced volume transitions, and fast AC electric field-induced orientational switching of microdomains are the main examples.