Synthesis of Spherical Molecular and Ionic Assemblies

本工作的目的是制备超大分子和离子胶囊，并研究其分子识别性能。将会或已经制备了一些杯芳烃和烷基取代的间苯二酚芳烃和吡咯芳烃，并将研究这些材料自组装成五聚体和六聚体。这样形成的球形组件将通过多种方法来表征。然后，这些球形组件将被系统地呈现给潜在的客体分子和潜在客体的混合物，以获得关于它们的分子识别性能的信息。最后，具有非常长的烷基“尾巴”的六聚体组件将通过这些尾巴通过六聚体-六聚体的相互作用来测试它们形成更大组件的能力。通过这个奖项，有机和高分子化学项目支持密苏里大学哥伦比亚分校化学系曾傑瑞·L·阿特伍德博士的研究。阿特伍德博士将探索球形分子和离子胶囊的合成。与天然化合物相关的酚类四聚体可以自组装成各种柏拉图和阿基米德多面体形状。由此产生的球形组装体定义了内部体积，因此术语分子胶囊能够识别和区分其他分子客体。这种组件可能在药物输送或从混合物中去除污染物方面有实际应用。通过该项目培训的学生将获得无机材料研究和超分子有机化学方面的经验，因此他们将拥有特种化学品和制药行业所需的技能。

The objective of this work is to prepare very large molecular and ionic capsules and investigate their molecular recognition properties. A number of calixarenes and alkyl substituted resorcinarenes and pyrogallolarenes will be or have been prepared and the self assembly of these materials into pentamers and hexamers will be studied. The spherical assemblies thus formed will be characterized by a number of methods. These spherical assemblies will then be systematically presented with potential guest molecules and mixtures of potential guests to gain information about their molecular recognition properties. Lastly, hexameric assemblies with very long alkyl "tails" will be tested for their ability to form even larger assemblies via hexamer-hexamer interactions through these tails. With this award, the Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry Program is supporting the research of Dr. Jerry L. Atwood of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Dr. Atwood will explore the synthesis of spherical molecular and ionic capsules. Tetramers of phenols related to naturally occuring compounds can self assemble into a variety of Platonic and Archimedean polyhedral shapes. The resulting spherical assemblies have defined internal volumes, hence the term molecular capsules, capable of recognizing and distinguishing other molecular guests. Such assemblies may have practical applications for drug delivery or the removal of contaminants from mixtures. Students trained as a result of working on this project will gain experience in inorganic materials research as well as supramolecular organic chemistry, hence they will have skills needed by both the specialty chemicals and pharmaceutical industries.