Programmable two-dimensional nanosheets for the sensing and separation of proteins.

金属有机纳米片（MON）是一类新兴的石墨烯类二维纳米材料。MONs联合收割机以模块化的方式将有机化合物的多样性与金属离子的独特性质结合起来，从而允许系统地调整其性质。它们具有非常高的表面积，易于调节的化学性质和纳米尺寸，使其成为传感，催化，电子和分离应用的理想选择。自然界利用位于表面互补位置的多个弱相互作用的化学基团，以产生能够强烈和选择性地结合复杂大分子（如蛋白质）的受体。MONs的纳米尺度意味着它们具有合适的长度尺度以促进这些相互作用，并且其他纳米片如氧化石墨烯已被证明可以很好地结合到蛋白质受体位点。与其他纳米片不同，MONs在其表面呈现出不同官能团的有序周期阵列，这可能使它们能够被调整以选择性地结合特定蛋白质。因此，本项目将设计新的MONs，其表面呈现出多个官能团，这使它们能够选择性地结合不同的蛋白质和其他大分子。该项目的长期目标是利用MONs作为新型受体结合和分离生物医学上重要的蛋白质，用于疾病诊断。

Metal-organic nanosheets (MONs) are an emerging class of graphene-like two-dimensional nanomaterials. MONs combine the diversity of organic compounds with the unique properties of metal ions in a modular way that allows their properties to be tuned systematically. Their very high surface area, readily tunable chemistry and nanoscopic dimensions make them ideal for use in sensing, catalysis, electronics and separation applications.Nature harnesses multiple weakly interacting chemical groups positioned in complementary locations on a surface in order to create receptors able to strongly and selectively bind to complex macromolecules such proteins. The nanoscopic dimensions of MONs mean they are of the right length scale to facilitate these interactions and other nanosheets such as graphene oxide have been shown to bind well to protein receptor sites. Unlike other nanosheets, MONs present an ordered periodic array of different functional groups on their surfaces potentially allowing them to be tuned to selectively bind specific proteins.This project will, therefore, be to design new MONs which present multiple functional groups on their surfaces which allow them to selectively bind to different proteins and other macromolecules. The long term aims of this project are to utilise the MONs as novel receptors to bind and separate biomedically important proteins for use in disease diagnosis.