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  • Biomimetic and bioinspired molecular electrets. How to make them and why does the established peptide chemistry not always work?
Title: Biomimetic and bioinspired molecular electrets. How to make them and why does the established peptide chemistry not always work?
Abstract “Biomimetic” and “bioinspired” define different aspects of the impacts that biology exerts on science and engineering. Biomimicking improves the understanding of how living systems work, and builds tools for bioinspired endeavors. Biological inspiration takes ideas from biology and implements them in unorthodox manners, exceeding what nature offers. Molecular electrets, i.e. systems with ordered electric dipoles, are key for advancing charge-transfer (CT) science and engineering. Protein helices and their biomimetic analogues, based on synthetic polypeptides, are the best-known molecular electrets. The inability of native polypeptide backbones to efficiently mediate long-range CT, however, limits their utility. Bioinspired molecular electrets based on anthranilamides can overcome the limitations of their biological and biomimetic counterparts. Polypeptide helices are easy to synthesize using established automated protocols. These protocols, however, fail to produce even short anthranilamide oligomers. For making anthranilamides, the residues are introduced as their nitrobenzoic-acid derivatives, and the oligomers are built from their C- to their N-termini via amide-coupling and nitro-reduction steps. The stringent requirements for these reduction and coupling steps pose non-trivial challenges, such as high selectivity, quantitative yields, and fast completion under mild conditions. Addressing these challenges will provide access to bioinspired molecular electrets essential for organic electronics and energy conversion.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1800602
NSF-PAR ID:
10182247
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Pure and Applied Chemistry
Volume:
92
Issue:
2
ISSN:
0033-4545
Page Range / eLocation ID:
275 to 299
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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