Collaborative Research: Unraveling Interactions that Drive Water-Osmolyte Interactions in Confinement and Impact Self-Assembly

在这个由化学系的化学结构，动力学和机制A（CSDM-A）计划资助的合作项目中，南希·莱文杰教授（科罗拉多州立大学）和布里奇特·古利（DePauw大学）沿着他们的研究小组正在使用磁性和激光技术的组合来揭示水被限制在纳米级的微小结构中时的动力学性质，大约是十亿分之四十英寸。在这些微小的环境中，水的分子行为与装满水的玻璃杯中发生的情况不匹配。此外，其他分子，如糖，这是经常发现与水在这种紧密的空间，从根本上影响水的性质。通过创建和表征一系列系统，这项工作推进了对化学合成，环境修复，细胞活动等过程重要的环境中水的行为的理解。参与该研究计划的学生在分子水平上发展专业知识，同时通过在多个职业阶段，本科生，研究生和研究生的跨机构科学家团队中共同工作，学习有效的项目协作技能。为了促进有效的指导，该项目还创建和评估了一个由PI领导的“导师导师”计划，以指导研究生研究人员作为更多新手研究人员的导师，从而培养下一代导师和科学家的发展。该程序采用1D和2D NMR沿着与时间分辨和稳态光谱，以表征在反胶束中产生的受限环境和其中发生的相互作用。结合这些工具的数据，揭示了限制和水渗透剂相互作用和饲料预测模型的相互作用。其特征在于封装渗透剂的反胶束环境，结果揭示了这些环境如何影响质子和电子转移反应。此外，该项目还研究了从本体溶液过渡到纳米级环境的水-渗透剂相互作用，并探索了渗透剂对反胶束结构，稳定性和形式的影响。该项目旨在通过观察到的行为和提出的机制之间的直接相关性来开发预测工具，以揭示存在于封闭水环境中的基本相互作用，从而促进知识的发展。这一实验性计划的更广泛影响是双重的。首先，该计划为本科生和研究生提供NMR和时间分辨光谱学的重要培训，以及在多机构协作团队中工作的经验。该科学揭示了渗透物活跃的拥挤生物环境的细节，并提供了适用于食品，能源，水关系和生命规则等重大理念的预测模型。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

In this collaborative project funded by the Chemical Structure, Dynamics, and Mechanisms A (CSDM-A) Program of the Chemistry Division, Professors Nancy Levinger (Colorado State University) and Bridget Gourley (DePauw University) along with their research groups are using a combination of magnetic and laser techniques to shed light on water's dynamical properties when confined in minuscule structures that are nanometers, or approximately 40 billionths of an inch, in size. In these minuscule environments, water's molecular behavior does not match what happens in a glass full of water. Additionally, other molecules such as sugars, which are often found with water in such tight spaces, radically influence water’s properties. By creating and characterizing a range of systems, this work advances the understanding of water's behavior in environments that are important to processes such as chemical synthesis, environmental remediation, cellular activity, and beyond. Students involved in this research program develop expertise at the molecular level while with learning effective project collaboration skills by working together on an inter-institutional team of scientists at multiple career stages, undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate. To facilitate effective mentoring the project also creates and assesses a "mentor the mentor" program led by the PIs to guide graduate researchers as mentors of more novice researchers and thus nurture the development of the next generation of mentors and scientists. This program employs 1D and 2D NMR along with time-resolved and steady-state optical spectroscopies to characterize the confined environments created in reverse micelles and the interactions occurring within them. Combining data from these tools reveals the interplay of confinement and water-osmolyte interactions and feed predictive models. Having characterized the reverse micelle environments that encapsulate osmolytes, results reveal how these environments affect proton and electron transfer reactions. Additionally, the project investigates water-osmolyte interactions transitioning from bulk solution to nanoscopic contexts and explores the impact of osmolytes on reverse micelle structure, stability, and form. The project seeks to advance knowledge by developing predictive tools through direct correlation between observed behaviors and proposed mechanisms to uncover fundamental interactions that exist in confined aqueous environments. The broader impacts of this experimental program are two-fold. First, the program provides undergraduate and graduate students important training in NMR and time-resolved optical spectroscopies as well as experience working in a multi-institutional collaborative team. The science reveals details about crowded biological environments where osmolytes are active and provide predictive models that apply to big ideas like the food, energy, water nexus, and Rules of Life.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.