Novel Chelant Design for Improving Cleaning Performance and Sustainability of Consumer Goods

螯合剂是清洁产品中提供强去污力的基本成分，但现有材料不满足当前所需的所有特性（例如，强性能、可生物降解、无磷、无害）。近年来，随着宝洁努力用其他改善环境的分子材料取代织物护理配方中的“经典螯合剂”，对金属控制领域的创新需求变得至关重要。目前可用的“绿色”螯合剂提供了适度的性能优势，并且与传统使用的材料（如EDTA）相比存在一些缺点。学生Lucy Woods将设计并合成基于铁载体的小分子。它们是在自然界中进化出来的螯合分子，可以帮助生物体满足对金属离子的需求，尤其是对所有生命形式都必不可少的铁离子。实现强大性能的关键因素将被建模并用于告知分子设计。在接近分子设计时，目标将是保留那些提供强金属结合的分子特性，同时去除与细菌细胞摄取机制有关的官能团。主要候选物将在宝洁配方中进行合成和筛选，将其性能与金属离子亲和性和亲脂性等特性相关联，最终建立详细的结构-活性关系。这些主要任务将通过互补的分子建模和分析表征来告知。该项目的时间将分配给大学（设计和合成新型螯合剂）和宝洁（将新型螯合剂应用于宝洁的性能方法）。

Chelants are a fundamental ingredient in cleaning products for providing strong detergency but existing materials do not meet all of the properties that are currently desired (e.g., strong performance, biodegradable, nil-phosphorus, non-hazardous). The need for innovation in the field of metal control has become crucial in recent years as P&G strive to replace the 'classic chelants' in Fabric Care formulations with other molecular materials that have improved environmental profiles. The 'green' chelants which are currently available provide modest performance benefits, and with some disadvantages relative to conventionally used materials such as EDTA.The student, Lucy Woods, will design and synthesise small molecules based on siderophores. They are chelating molecules that have evolved in nature to help organisms meet their needs for metal ions, in particular iron, which is essential to all life forms. The key factors enabling strong performance will be modelled and used to inform the molecular design. In approaching the molecular design, the aim will be to preserve those molecular properties that provide strong metal-binding, while removing the functional groups which are involved in the bacterial cell uptake mechanisms. The lead candidates will be synthesised and screened for performance in P&G formulations, correlating the performance with properties such as metal ion affinity and lipophilicity, ultimately building up a detailed structure-activity relationship. These principal tasks will be informed by complementary molecular modelling and analytical characterisation.Time on the project will be split between the University (designing and synthesising novel chelants) and P&G (applying the novel chelants in P&G performance methods).