Programmable Polymers Based on Restricted Rotation

在这个由化学系大分子、超分子和纳米化学计划资助的项目中，南卡罗来纳大学的清水健将开发可重写的分子印迹聚合物。方法是合成具有构象受限官能团的聚合物网络，这些官能团能够非共价相互作用。这些网络将在有客人在场的情况下进行热退火，然后将客人移走以产生印迹网络。网络的“记忆”可以通过将其加热到能够围绕受限制键快速旋转的温度来擦除。更广泛的影响包括对本科生和研究生的培训，继续由化学系研究生运营的高中化学演示项目，为高中生提供实验室的暑期研究机会，以及可编程聚合物的潜在科学和技术影响。这些研究将进一步加深我们对分子如何在材料中以化学方式呈现，以及该印记稍后如何选择性地识别该分子的理解。这项工作可以改进去除药物中的杂质或水中的环境污染物的方法，并改进化学传感器，以提供更快和更准确的结果。

In this project funded by the Macromolecular, Supramolecular and Nanochemistry Program of the Chemistry Division, Ken D. Shimizu of the University of South Carolina will develop rewritable molecularly imprinted polymers. The approach is to synthesize polymer networks with conformationally restricted functional groups capable of non-covalent interactions. The networks would be thermally annealed in the presence of a guest, and then the guest would be removed to produce the imprinted network. The "memory" of the network would be erased by heating it at a temperature that enables fast rotation about the restricted bonds. The broader impacts involve training undergraduate and graduate students, continuing a high school chemical demonstration program run by graduate students in the chemistry department, providing high school students a summer research opportunity in the laboratory, and the potential scientific and technological impact of programmable polymers.The research will further our understanding of how an "imprint" of a molecule can be rendered chemically within a material and how that imprint can later "recognize" the molecule selectively. This work could lead to improved methods to remove impurities from pharmaceuticals or environmental contaminants from water and to improved chemical sensors that would provide faster and more accurate results.