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Directed Assembly of Elastin-like Proteins into defined Supramolecular Structures and Cargo Encapsulation In Vitro
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Phase separation and selective guest-host binding in multi-component supramolecular self-assembly on Au(111)
Linghao Yan1, Guowen Kuang, Nian Lin
1Department of Physics, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China. linghao.yan@aalto.fi phnlin@ust.hk.
Chemical Communications (Cambridge, England)
|September 6, 2018
Summary
Self-assembly of trimesic acid and benzenetribenzoic acid on gold surfaces creates distinct porous structures. These structures selectively bind coronene molecules, demonstrating potential for molecular recognition applications.
Area of Science:
- Surface Science
- Supramolecular Chemistry
- Nanotechnology
Background:
- Supramolecular self-assembly is crucial for creating ordered nanostructures.
- Controlling phase separation in multi-component systems is challenging.
- Gold surfaces are widely used platforms for molecular assembly studies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the bi-component self-assembly of trimesic acid and benzenetribenzoic acid on Au(111).
- To characterize the resulting porous structures and their phase-separated nature.
- To evaluate the molecular binding selectivity of these porous structures for coronene.
Main Methods:
- Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) for surface imaging.
- X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) for chemical analysis.
- Computational modeling to understand self-assembly energetics.
Main Results:
- Phase-separated, mono-component porous structures were successfully formed.
- Distinct pore sizes and geometries were observed for each component.
- High selectivity in the binding of coronene molecules to specific pore types was demonstrated.
Conclusions:
- Bi-component self-assembly can lead to well-defined, phase-separated porous materials.
- The resulting structures exhibit selective molecular recognition capabilities.
- This approach offers a pathway for designing functional porous materials on surfaces.
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