Creating nanocavities of tunable sizes: Hollow helices
Year: 2002
Type: article
Abstract: A general strategy for creating nanocavities with tunable sizes based on the folding of unnatural oligomers is presented. The backbones of these oligomers are rigidified by localized, three-center intramolecular hydrogen bonds, which lead to well-defined hollow helical conformations. Changing the curvature of the oligomer backbone leads to the adjustment of the interior cavity size. Helices with interior cavities of 10 A to >30 A across, the largest thus far formed by the folding of unnatural foldamers, are generated. Cavities of these sizes are usually seen at the tertiary and quaternary structural levels of proteins. The ability to tune molecular dimensions without altering the underlying topology is seen in few natural and unnatural foldamer systems.
Institutions: Northern Illinois University, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, University of Toledo, California Institute of Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Chengdu Organic Chemicals (China)
Language: English
Subfield: Organic Chemistry
Field: Chemistry
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2169810303