KCS

Fuel-driven self-assembling systems are ubiquitous in nature. Among these, a widely cited example is the formation-deformation mechanism of microtubules via the self-assembly of tubulin proteins fueled by guanosine-5’-triphosphate (GTP). In case of artificially designed fuel-driven, transient self-assembling systems, they often suffer from the accumulation of chemical wastes that interfere with the formation of pristine self-assembled products in subsequent refueled cycles. Recently we discovered that the chemical fuel-driven transient crystallization of a cucurbit[8]uril-based host-guest complex, can be efficiently carried out avoiding the large accumulation of chemical wastes in solution. Here we made use of trichloroacetic acid as a fuel, which undergoes base-catalyzed thermal decarboxylation producing volatile chemical wastes that are spontaneously removed from the solution.1 As a result of such a self-clearance process, the minimal presence of chemical wastes does not significantly influence the formation, morphology and structural integrity of the crystals. Details of our research in this area will be presented.

References 1. Choi, S.; Mukhopadhyay, R. D.; Kim, Y.; Hwang, I. -C.; Hwang, W.; Ghosh, S. K.; Baek, K.; Kim, K. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2019, 58, 16850-16853.