Helical Nanotubes from the Directed Assembly of Porous Macrocycles

有了这个奖项，有机和高分子化学计划支持了纽约州立大学布法罗的龚兵教授和内布拉斯加大学林肯的曾晓成教授的工作。 这项研究将涉及从大环（大环分子）中构建自组装纳米管，其直径为1-3 nm的纳米尺寸横截面空腔。 最近发现的刚性大环化合物的一步合成法将是制备这些大环化合物的基础。 它们将包含允许它们使用氢键和芳环堆叠自组装成纳米管的基团。 这些新的设计策略将允许这些纳米管是手性的，并且进一步地，管尺寸可以随着管功能沿着变化。 并行计算研究所提出的系统将进行指导，以及确认的实验工作。 将获得所提出的手性纳米管结构的纳米流体性质，这将为未来的实验研究提供指导，这项研究的更广泛的影响涉及设计，合成，表征和计算方面的跨学科结合的项目在学生的培训。 该项目将涉及传统上在科学领域代表性不足的本科生和接触和接触纳米科学最新发展有限的学生。 最后，这些大环的可用性，沿着它们的容易修饰，将导致许多具有可变尺寸和稳定性的自组装螺旋纳米管，这将导致构建以前不可用的材料，其可以在各种领域中找到应用。

With this award, the Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry Program supports the work of Professor Bing Gong of SUNY Buffalo and Professor Xiao Cheng Zeng of the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. This research will involve the construction of self-assembling nanotubes from macrocycles (large ring molecules) with nano-sized cross sectional cavities of ~1-3 nm in diameter. A recently discovered 1-step synthesis of rigid large macrocycles will be the basis for preparing these large macrocycles. They will contain groups which will allow them to self-assemble, using hydrogen bonding and aromatic ring stacking, into nanotubes. These new design strategies will allow these nanotubes to be chiral and further, the tube dimensions can be varied along with the tube functionality. Parallel computational studies on the proposed system will be carried out which will guide as well as confirm the experimental effort. Nanofluidic properties of the proposed chiral nanotubular structures will be obtained and this will provide guidance for future experimental studies.The broader impacts of this research involve the interdisciplinary combining of the design, synthesis, characterization and computational aspects of the project in the training of students. The project will involve undergraduate students from groups traditionally underrepresented in the sciences and students who have limited exposure and access to the latest developments in nanosciences. Finally, the availability of these macrocycles, along with their easy modification, will lead to numerous self-assembling helical nanotubes with variable size and stability, which will result in the construction of previously unavailable materials that may find applications in a variety of fields.