A Bottom-Up Construction of Organic Nanotubes From Renewable Resources
aCREST, Japan Science and Technology Corporation (JST), NARC, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST),
Tsukuba Central 4, 1-1-1 Higashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8562, Japan
bNanoarchitectonics Research Center (NARC), AIST,
Tsukuba Central 5, 1-1-1 Higashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8565, Japan
cPhotonics Research Institute, AIST,
Tsukuba Central 5, 1-1-1 Higashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8565, Japan
This is an abstract
for a presentation given at the
Ninth
Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology.
There will be a link from here to the full article when it is
available on the web.
The self-assembly of low molecular weight building blocks into noncovalent polymeric nanostructures has recently attracted considerable interest for applications in nanotechnology as a bottom-up approach for the construction of molecular-scale devices [1]. The building blocks currently used in supramolecular chemistry are synthesized mainly from petroleum-based starting materials. However, bio-based organic synthesis presents distinct advantages for the generation of new building blocks since (a) they are obtainable from renewable resources; (b) they are likely to be biodegradable; (c) natural compounds have a wealth of structural diversity that has yet to be explored. This study is an effort to combine the philosophies of green chemistry and supramolecular chemistry, making use of renewable plant-derived resources as the starting materials (an alternate feedstock) for the noncovalent synthesis of meso- and nanoscale structures. The use of cardanol (obtained from Anacardium occidentale L, a renewable resource and a by-product of the cashew industry) and its derivatives for various applications is well known. However, its use in the synthesis of aryl glycolipids and their self-assembled nanostructures are described here for the first time. Simple glycolipids derived from cardanol were self-assembled in water initially form helical coiled nanofibers and then gradually turn into tubular structures of several tens to several hundreds of micrometers long and internal diameters of 10-15 nm (Figure 1). The nanotubes are found to be open ended, with uniform shape and internal diameter with a wall consisting of two to four lipid interdigitated bilayers.
Reference:
[1]. G. John, M. Masuda, Y. Okada, K. Yase, T. Shimizu, Adv. Mat., 13, 715 (2001).
Abstract in RTF format 8,028 bytes
*Corresponding Address:
George John
CREST, Japan Science and Technology Corporation (JST), NARC, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST),
Tsukuba Central 4, 1-1-1 Higashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8562, Japan
Phone: +81-298-61-2688
Fax: +81-298-61-2659
Email: [email protected]
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