Programmable Polymers Based on Restricted Rotation

本课题由化学系高分子、超分子和纳米化学项目资助。南卡罗来纳州大学的清水正孝将开发分子印迹聚合物。 该方法是合成具有能够进行非共价相互作用的构象受限官能团的聚合物网络。 网络将在客体存在下热退火，然后将客体除去以产生印迹网络。 网络的“记忆”将通过在能够围绕受限键快速旋转的温度下加热来擦除。 更广泛的影响涉及培训本科生和研究生，继续由化学系研究生运行的高中化学演示计划，为高中生提供实验室夏季研究机会，以及可编程聚合物的潜在科学和技术影响。这项研究将进一步加深我们对“印记”分子的印记可以在材料中以化学方式呈现，以及该印记如何随后选择性地“识别”分子。 这项工作可能会导致改进的方法，以去除药物中的杂质或水中的环境污染物，并改进化学传感器，以提供更快，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.