CAREER: Kinetic Self-Sorting of Dynamic Combinatorial Libraries

在这个由化学学部大分子、超分子和纳米化学项目资助的项目中，休斯顿大学的Ognjen Miljanic将开发完全合成的自组织化学系统，并研究它们在制备大分子化学中的应用。方法是利用被称为动态组合文库的自由平衡化合物的混合物，通过放大其最适合给定刺激的成分来响应选择压力。在不可逆化学反应中，动态组合库自发地进行自我排序，以牺牲反应性较低的对应物为代价，选择性地产生最活泼的成分。这种方法将用于开发新的树状大分子、传感器和其他功能分子的一步合成，以及快速筛选和发现新的化学反应。更广泛的影响包括为化学教育创建基于网络的远程学习工具，为本科生和研究生提供培训，为高中生提供在实验室进行夏季研究的机会，为K-12教师组织科学研讨会，以及开发的自分类过程的潜在科学和技术影响。这项研究将进一步加深我们对分子如何自发组织和结合成更大分子的理解和控制。这些见解对于阐明生命的化学起源，以及设计新的工业过程非常重要，这些工业过程可以利用这些新的化学反应来有效地生产工业原料、新的聚合物或环境污染物传感器。

In this project funded by the Macromolecular, Supramolecular and Nanochemistry Program of the Chemistry Division, Ognjen Miljanic of the University of Houston will develop fully synthetic self-organizing chemical systems, and study their applications in preparative macromolecular chemistry. The approach is to utilize mixtures of freely equilibrating compounds known as dynamic combinatorial libraries, which respond to selection pressures by amplifying their components that best adapt to the given stimulus. During irreversible chemical reactions, dynamic combinatorial libraries spontaneously self-sort to selectively produce the most reactive components at the expense of their less reactive counterparts. This methodology will be used to develop one-step syntheses of new dendrimers, sensors, and other functional molecules, as well as to rapidly screen and discover new chemical reactions. The broader impacts involve creation of web-based distance learning tools for chemical education, training of undergraduate and graduate students, providing high school students with summer research opportunities in the laboratory, organization of science workshops for K-12 teachers, and the potential scientific and technological impact of the developed self-sorting processes.The research will further our understanding and control of how molecules spontaneously organize and combine into larger molecules. These insights could be important in elucidating the chemical origins of life, as well as in the design of new industrial processes which could utilize these new chemical reactions to efficiently produce industrial feedstocks, new polymers, or sensors for environmental pollutants.