Supramoleculaire Chemie en Supramoleculaire Katalyse IUAP5-3

Supramolecular chemistry describes the chemistry beyond the molecule and studies chemical species held together by non-covalent intermolecular bonds. It is the aim of the project to develop novel systems, to understand driving forces that allow bi- and tridimensional organisation, to develop methods and tools to investigate, address, manipulate supramolecular structures and exploit their specific properties. In the network it is aimed to continue the study of various aspects of supramolecular chemistry, encompassing its relation with organic and physical chemistry, catalysis, polymer and biomimetic chemistry. Important keywords for this project are molecularly resolved supramolecular systems, self-organisation, dimensionality, chirality and reactivity. In comparison with the previous project, certain timely new topics are emphasised, such as e.g. the bio-aspects, while other promising areas will be further explored. During the previous programme, strong links among the partners with complementary experimental and theoretical expertise were developed. As a result, each of the 4 specific research packages proposed and related to each of the mentioned disciplines, will now be tackled by several partners with complementary expertise and instrumental capabilities.

In the tasks related to organic and physical chemistry, emphasis will be on a bottom-up approach of controlled organic and hybrid structures with enhanced functionalities and theoretical and experimental methodologies. In particular dendritic structures, photonic materials including band gap materials and conjugated oligomeric structures will be developed. Interaction of these materials with polymer and bio-materials will be investigated as well.

In the tasks involving supramolecular catalysis, the research effort continues to be on supramolecular hyperselective catalysis, with new emphasis on specific aspects of bio-catalysis. The integrated approach covering the development of the supramolecular solids, their adsorption proeprties and the modeling of their kinetic behavior, will be generalised, extended to catalytic solids with increased porosity combined with reactants with enhanced size. The theoretical modelling of the active sites will be included. The rationale behind the activities consists in the implementation of concepts of supramolecular chemistry / biochemistry into heterogeneous catalysis and biocatalysis. to develop and understand at the molecular level, new heterogeneous (supramolecular) catalysts designed for enhanced selectivity. Specifically, all expertise is present in the network to successfully modify enzymes via directed evolution.