Nanostructured Micelle Nanotubes Self‐Assembled from Dinucleobase Monomers in Water

Despite the central importance of aqueous amphiphile assemblies in science and industry, the size and shape of these nano‐objects is often difficult to control with accuracy owing to the non‐directional nature of the hydrophobic interactions that sustain them. Here, using a bioinspired strategy that consists of programming an amphiphile with shielded directional Watson–Crick hydrogen‐bonding functions, its self‐assembly in water was guided toward a novel family of chiral micelle nanotubes with partially filled lipophilic pores of about 2 nm in diameter. Moreover, these tailored nanotubes are successfully demonstrated to extract and host molecules that are complementary in size and chemical affinity. Shaping amphiphile assemblies into a novel class of tubular architectures has been realized by programming an unconventional amphiphilic molecule with directional Watson–Crick hydrogen‐bonding interactions that are shielded from the aqueous environment. These self‐assembled nanotubes have chiral lipophilic pores about 2 nm in diameter that are able to encapsulate molecules that are complementary in size and chemical affinity.