TY - JOUR
T1 - Emergent behavior in nanoconfined molecular containers
AU - Liu, Wenqi
AU - Stoddart, J. Fraser
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank Northwestern University for its continuing financial support. This work was also funded by the Center for Sustainable Separations of Metals (CSSM), a National Science Foundation (NSF) Center for Chemical Innovation (CCI), grant number CHE−1925708 .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2021/4/8
Y1 - 2021/4/8
N2 - The expression of biological functions, such as enzyme catalysis, immune response, and cargo transport in confined nanospaces, with very different physical and chemical environments from those in bulk solution, is of crucial importance to living systems. The construction of artificial nanoconfined containers, employing molecular engineering, has become a major focus of many molecular scientists in recent times. These molecular containers—with stereochemically well-defined three-dimensional structures—have proved to be powerful platforms in which to build confined nanospaces. The synthetic flexibility provided by molecular containers gives us the opportunity to tune cavity sizes, geometries, and stereoelectronic landscapes, providing versatile binding pockets tailored to match prescribed properties and functions. With the objective of highlighting the emergent properties of smart materials, housed in confined nanospaces, this review highlights examples of molecular containers with preordained binding pockets and focuses on cavity-enabled functions, such as selective capture, controlled release, and efficient catalysis.
AB - The expression of biological functions, such as enzyme catalysis, immune response, and cargo transport in confined nanospaces, with very different physical and chemical environments from those in bulk solution, is of crucial importance to living systems. The construction of artificial nanoconfined containers, employing molecular engineering, has become a major focus of many molecular scientists in recent times. These molecular containers—with stereochemically well-defined three-dimensional structures—have proved to be powerful platforms in which to build confined nanospaces. The synthetic flexibility provided by molecular containers gives us the opportunity to tune cavity sizes, geometries, and stereoelectronic landscapes, providing versatile binding pockets tailored to match prescribed properties and functions. With the objective of highlighting the emergent properties of smart materials, housed in confined nanospaces, this review highlights examples of molecular containers with preordained binding pockets and focuses on cavity-enabled functions, such as selective capture, controlled release, and efficient catalysis.
KW - SDG3: Good health and well-being
KW - SDG7: Affordable and clean energy
KW - catalysis
KW - host-guest chemistry
KW - molecular nanospaces
KW - molecular receptors
KW - molecular recognition
KW - porous materials
KW - separation science
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U2 - 10.1016/j.chempr.2021.02.016
DO - 10.1016/j.chempr.2021.02.016
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85104130142
VL - 7
SP - 919
EP - 947
JO - Chem
JF - Chem
SN - 2451-9294
IS - 4
ER -