A crew of chemists from The College of Hong Kong (HKU), in collaboration with worldwide scientists, has made vital strides within the discipline of mechanically interlocked molecules (MIMs). Their work, just lately printed within the prestigious journal Nature Synthesis, showcases the event of a compact catenane with tuneable mechanical chirality, providing promising purposes in areas corresponding to materials science, nanotechnology, and prescription drugs.
The analysis was a collaborative effort led by the late Nobel Laureate Professor Fraser STODDART, alongside Analysis Assistant Professors Dr Chun TANG and Dr Ruihua ZHANG from HKU’s Division of Chemistry. Contributions additionally got here from researchers at HKU, Northwestern College and different world establishments.
Catenanes and Mechanical Chirality
Catenanes are distinctive molecular constructions shaped by the mechanical interlocking of two or extra rings, akin to chain hyperlinks. In contrast to covalent bonds, these rings are held collectively by mechanical forces. Mechanical chirality refers back to the chirality arising from the non-superimposable spatial association of interlocked molecular rings, which might considerably impression their properties and features.
On this research, researchers demonstrated that two achiral rings with particular symmetrical options can create a catenane with mechanical chirality by way of an progressive isostructural desymmetrisation technique. This enables the catenane to undertake a compact co-conformation, much like its achiral counterpart. When interlocked on this compact kind, the rings lose their particular person symmetry and kind chiral constructions that can’t overlap with their mirror photos, a property often called chirality in chemistry.
Technical Innovation and Methodology
The analysis crew has developed a catenane with tuneable chirality, achieved by way of chiral induction and superior artificial methods. By introducing chiral disulfonate molecules, they’ll favour one mirror-image kind over the opposite, permitting exact management over the catenane’s behaviour in options and stable crystals. This tunability, pushed by a compact design and strategic molecular geometry changes, suggests promising purposes in sensible supplies, and nanotechnology and novel drug design. Computational modelling and experimental validation have enabled the manipulation of chirality by controlling the interplay and mechanical actions of the interlocked rings, permitting transitions between completely different chiral states. The researchers additionally revealed that the equilibrium between these enantiomers will be adjusted by introducing sure chiral molecules, inducing chirality and optical exercise.
Potential Purposes
In nanotechnology, these catenanes could possibly be used to create molecular machines with particular chiral functionalities that carry out duties corresponding to molecular recognition or focused drug supply. In supplies science, the tunable properties of those constructions may result in the event of recent supplies and composites with customisable mechanical and optical traits for sensing and different purposes.
“The flexibility to create and management mechanical chirality in catenanes opens up new avenues for the event of superior practical supplies and synthetic molecular machines,” mentioned Dr Tang. “Our findings spotlight the potential of utilizing mechanical bonds to create chirality, which may have essential implications for the sector of chemistry and supplies science.”
