Nonclassical forces: Seemingly insignificant but a powerful tool to control macromolecular structures

作者：Fujiki Michiya^*; Saxena Anubhav

来源：Journal of Polymer Science Part A: Polymer Chemistry , 2008, 46(14): 4637-4650.

DOI：10.1002/pola.22762

• conjugated polymers
• cooperative effects
• fluoride
• homochirality
• nitroaromatics
• noncovalent interaction
• parity violation
• polysilane
• sensors
• structure-property relations
• weak forces

Strong chemical forces such as covalent and ionic bonds are responsible for building discrete molecules, nature dwells on noncovalent forces weaker by three orders in magnitude, like the hydrophobic effect, hydrogen bonding, and van der Waals forces. Despite being weak, they possess the potential to drive spontaneous folding or unfolding of proteins and nucleic acids and the recognition between complimentary molecular surfaces. The power of these forces lies in the cooperativity with which they act, thereby generating a cumulative effect of many bonding inter-actions occurring together. Many ongoing research aims to translate the potential of these forces to the synthetic world to create desired structures with specific chemical functions. Achieving this offers unlimited opportunities for designing and synthesizing the most complex structures with specific applications. This highlight aims to reflect the critical role these noncovalent forces play in controlling macromolecular structures, which hold immense untapped potential for applications defying conventions, and briefly touches on the concept of homochirality in nature based on chiral and weak noncovalent interactions in synthetic nonpolar Si-catenated polymers. It sheds some light on the discovery and characterization of Si/F-C interactions in fluoroalkylated polysilanes in chemosensing of fluoride ions and nitroaromatics with a great sensitivity and selectivity.

• 出版日期2008-7-15