1. Functional zippers to organize synthetic and biological polymers
Linda S. Shimizu, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Our Goal is to make discrete mesoscale assemblies. In this grant period we have probed the limits of the urea assembly motif by studying the assembly of small models 2-6 in both solid state and in solution. We examined the effects of rigidity and flexibility both the structure of assembly formed and on the association constants in a range of solutions.
We found that the addition of heteroatoms that might compete as hydrogen bond acceptors did not disrupt assembly unless the system was quite flexible. This opens interesting possibilities for making functional porous materials for use as catalysts.