International Collaboration in Chemistry: New Approaches to Cyclodextrin-Based Organic Nanotubes

格鲁吉亚理工学院的Haskell Beckham教授得到化学系大分子、超分子和纳米化学（MSN）项目的支持（国际科学与工程办公室提供了资助），并获得了化学国际合作（ICC）的资助，以开发基于环糊精构建块的可加工有机纳米管的新的有效方法。 他在这项工作中的合作者是德国萨尔兰大学的格哈德·温茨教授。 Wenz教授因参与该项目而得到德国研究基金会的支持。 Beckham教授和Wenz教授共同领导一个国际研究团队，为衍生化环糊精开发新型模板导向交联策略，以制备具有可控直径，长度和溶解度的有机环糊精纳米管（CyNT）。 模板化中间体和CyNT的组成、结构和尺寸正在通过先进的核磁共振（NMR）技术进行表征。 使用固态和脉冲场梯度NMR正在研究CyNTs中探针分子的平移和旋转动力学。小分子在环糊精纳米管中的传输正在被表征，为CyNTs的高级应用奠定基础。 这位美国研究生每年将在德国学习五周的新合成方法。与碳纳米管和无机纳米管相比，对有机纳米管的广泛研究还不常见，因为不存在制备它们的简便方法。 由环糊精制备的有机纳米管特别有前途，因为环糊精是生物可再生的原料并且可大量商业化获得。在该项目中，正在开发基于环糊精的有机纳米管的新方法，以使这些生物相容性，生物可再生纳米管的广泛可用性，最终导致大规模的基础研究和应用。设想CyNT可以形成新技术平台的基础，所述新技术平台用作用于组织工程（特别是用于掺入各向异性和用于血管化）的生物相容性支架，用于分离目的，用于纳米流体中的前沿应用，用作用于聚合（特别是导电聚合物）的1D基质，以及用于活性化合物（例如，药物、农用化学品）。 参与该项目的学生将对国际合作实验室进行年度扩展交流访问，以进行合作工作和培训。

Professor Haskell Beckham of the Georgia Institute of Technology is supported by the Macromolecular, Supramolecular, and Nanochemistry (MSN) Program in the Division of Chemistry (with contribution from the Office of International Science and Engineering) with an International Collaboration in Chemistry (ICC) grant to develop new efficient approaches to processable organic nanotubes based on cyclodextrin building blocks. His collaborator in this work is Professor Gerhard Wenz of Saarland University in Germany. Professor Wenz is being supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation) for his participation in this project. Together, Professors Beckham and Wenz are leading an international team of researchers to develop novel template-directed crosslinking strategies for derivatized cyclodextrins to prepare organic cyclodextrin nanotubes (CyNTs) with controlled diameters, lengths, and solubilities. Composition, structure, and size of templated intermediates and CyNTs are being characterized by advanced nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques. Translational and rotational dynamics of probe molecules in CyNTs are being examined using solid-state and pulsed-field-gradient NMR. Transport of small molecules in cyclodextrin nanotubes are being characterized to lay a foundation for advanced applications of CyNTs. The U.S. graduate student will spend five weeks each year in Germany to learn about novel synthetic methodologies.In contrast to carbon and inorganic nanotubes, widespread investigations of organic nanotubes are not yet common because facile preparative routes to them do not exist. Organic nanotubes prepared from cyclodextrins are particularly promising because cyclodextrins are bio-renewable feedstocks and available commercially in large quantities. In this project, new approaches to cyclodextrin-based organic nanotubes are being developed to allow widespread availability of these biocompatible, bio-renewable nanotubes, ultimately leading to wide-scale basic studies and applications. It is envisioned that CyNTs can form the basis of new technology platforms for use as biocompatible scaffolds for tissue engineering (especially for incorporation of anisotropy and for vascularization), for separation purposes, for frontier applications in nanofluidics, as 1D matrices for polymerization (especially conducting polymers), and for slow release of active compounds (e.g., drugs, agrochemicals). The students working on the project will make annual, extended exchange visits to the international partner laboratory for collaborative work and training.