화학공학소재연구정보센터
Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol.129, No.17, 5735-5743, 2007
Molecular basis for water-promoted supramolecular chirality inversion in helical Rosette nanotubes
Helical rosette nanotubes (RNTs) are obtained through the self-assembly of the GandC motif, a self-complementary DNA base analogue featuring the complementary hydrogen bonding arrays of both guanine and cytosine. The first step of this process is the formation of a 6-membered supermacrocycle (rosette) maintained by 18 hydrogen bonds, which then self-organizes into a helical stack defining a supramolecular sextuple helix whose chirality and three-dimensional organization arise from the chirality, chemical structure, and conformational organization of the GandC motif. Because a chiral GandC motif is predisposed to express itself asymmetrically upon self-assembly, there is a natural tendency for it to form one chiral RNT over its mirror image. Here we describe the synthesis and characterization of a chiral GandC motif that self-assembles into helical RNTs in methanol, but undergoes mirror image supramolecular chirality inversion upon the addition of very small amounts of water (< 1% v/v). Extensive physical and computational studies established that the mirror-image RNTs obtained, referred to as chiromers, result from thermodynamic (in water) and kinetic (in methanol) self-assembly processes involving two conformational isomers of the parent GandC motif. Although derived from conformational states, the chiromers are thermodynamically stable supramolecular species, they display dominant/recessive behavior, they memorize and amplify their chirality in an achiral environment, they change their chirality in response to solvent and temperature, and they catalytically transfer their chirality. On the basis of these studies, a detailed mechanism for supramolecular chirality inversion triggered by specific molecular interactions between water molecules and the GandC motif is proposed.