Self-Assembly of Discrete and Infinite Nanoscale Supramolecular Assemblies via Metal Directed Coordination

定向键合范式与自然界使用氢键的自组装策略相似，但利用了金属配体配位的更大方向性和更强的键强度。结合其他弱相互作用，如π-π堆积，货车德瓦尔斯和静电力，它允许组装二维和三维超分子，具有明确的形状和尺寸的前所未有的多样性和多样性。该项目将把定向键合范式提升到下一个复杂水平，将碳硼烷、金属簇和液晶形成单元结合到超分子多边形和分子笼中，并将开始探索这些分子笼包含客体分子（包括富勒烯）的能力。随着化学家在构建相当大尺寸和复杂分子的能力方面越来越成熟，他们已经将注意力转向大的多分子聚集体的“自组装”的可能性，其中较小的分子构件自发地组装成具有限定形状和结构的更精细的材料。犹他州大学化学系的Peter J. Stang教授通过使用金属配位络合物研究纳米级超分子组装体的自组装，得到了有机和大分子化学计划的支持。Stang教授开发了一种用于构建此类组件的通用合成策略，利用金属配位络合物的定义几何形状来决定含有金属络合物作为关键构建块的聚集体的形状和结构。通过他的研究，他正在帮助定义自组装在构建不寻常的分子架构中的力量，这些分子架构可能在纳米器件和分子机械领域发挥核心作用。他的研究也是本科生，研究生和博士后学生在化学合成和超分子结构的基本和技术重要领域的教育和技术培训的有效工具。

The directional bonding paradigm parallels Nature's self-assembly strategy using hydrogen bonding, but takes advantage of the greater directionality and stronger bond strength of metal-ligand coordination. In combination with other weak interactions, such as pi-pi stacking, van der Waals and electrostatic forces, it allows for the assembly of two-dimensional and three-dimensional supramolecules with well defined shape and size of unprecedented variety and diversity. This project will take the directional bonding paradigm to the next level of complexity, incorporating carboranes, metal clusters, and liquid crystal forming units into supramolecular polygons and molecular cages, and will begin the exploration of the capabilities of these molecular cages to include guest molecules, including the fullerenes.As chemists have grown increasingly sophisticated in their ability to construct molecules of considerable size and complexity, they have turned their attention to the possibility of "self-assembly" of large multi-molecular aggregates, in which smaller molecular building blocks spontaneously assemble into more elaborate materials with defined shape and structure. Professor Peter J. Stang, of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Utah, is supported by the Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry Program for his studies of the self-assembly of nanoscale supramolecular assemblies through the use of coordination complexes of metals. Professor Stang has developed a general synthetic strategy for the construction of such assemblies, exploiting the defined geometries of metal coordination complexes to dictate the shape and structure of aggregates containing metal complexes as key building blocks. Through his studies, he is helping to define the power of self-assembly in the construction of unusual molecular architectures that may play central roles in the areas of nanoscale devices and molecular machinery. His research also serves as an effective vehicle for the education and technical training of undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral students in the fundamentally and technologically important areas of chemical synthesis and supramolecular structure.