Carbodiimide-fueled catalytic reaction cycles to regulate supramolecular processes

Area of Science:

• Supramolecular Chemistry
• Materials Science
• Chemical Engineering

Background:

• Synthetic self-assembly creates large structures with high precision using non-covalent interactions.
• Biological assemblies are dynamic, non-equilibrium systems powered by chemical fuel hydrolysis (e.g., ATP, GTP).
• Synthetic systems lack the dynamic properties (temporal/spatial control, self-healing) of biological assemblies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore how energy from chemical reactions can regulate molecular self-assembly.
• To provide an overview of carbodiimide hydration as an energy source for dynamic molecular assemblies.
• To guide the design of chemically fueled self-assembly for life-like materials.

Main Methods:

• Investigating reaction cycles that convert chemical energy to regulate self-assembly.
• Focusing on carbodiimide hydration as a source of transduced chemical energy.
• Analyzing how energy influences molecular function and assembly morphology.

Main Results:

• Carbodiimide hydration can be harnessed to drive and control molecular self-assembly.
• The transduced energy alters molecular function and assembly properties.
• This provides a pathway towards dynamic, life-like synthetic materials.

Conclusions:

• Carbodiimide-driven reaction cycles offer a method to imbue synthetic assemblies with dynamic, life-like properties.
• Understanding energy transduction is key to designing functional molecular materials.
• This research advances the field of chemically fueled self-assembly for bottom-up synthesis.