Tight Xenon Confinement in a Crystalline Sandwich-like Hydrogen-Bonded Dimeric Capsule of a Cyclic Peptide.

A cyclic hexapeptide with three pyridyl moieties connected to its backbone forms a hydrogen-bonded dimer, which tightly encapsulates a single xenon atom, like a pearl in its shell. The dimer imprints its shape and symmetry to the captured xenon atom, as demonstrated by 129 Xe NMR spectroscopy, single-crystal X-ray diffraction, and computational studies. The dimers self-assemble hierarchically into tubular structures to form a porous supramolecular architecture, whose cavities are filled by small molecules and gases.

Self-Assembling Molecular Capsules Based on α,γ-Cyclic Peptides.

A new capsule based on a ß-sheet self-assembling cyclic peptide with the ability to recognize and release several guests is described. The host structure is composed of two self-complementary α,γ-cyclic peptides bearing a Zn porphyrin cap that is used for the selective recognition of the guest. The two components are linked through two dynamic covalent bonds. The combination of binding forces, including hydrogen bonding, metal coordination, and dynamic hydrazone bonds, allows the reversible recognition of long bipyridine guests. The affinity for these ligands showed a strong dependence on the guest length. Delivery of the encapsulated ligand can be achieved by hydrolysis of hydrazones to disrupt the sandwich complex structure.

Self-assembling Venturi-like peptide nanotubes.

We describe the design and synthesis of self-assembling peptide nanotubes that have an internal filter area and whose length and internal diameters, at the entrance and in the constricted area, are precisely controlled.

The effect of host structure on the selectivity and mechanism of supramolecular catalysis of Prins cyclizations.

The effect of host structure on the selectivity and mechanism of intramolecular Prins reactions is evaluated using K12Ga4L6 tetrahedral catalysts. The host structure was varied by modifying the structure of the chelating moieties and the size of the aromatic spacers. While variation in chelator substituents was generally observed to affect changes in rate but not selectivity, changing the host spacer afforded differences in efficiency and product diastereoselectivity. An extremely high number of turnovers (up to 840) was observed. Maximum rate accelerations were measured to be on the order of 105, which numbers among the largest magnitudes of transition state stabilization measured with a synthetic host-catalyst. Host/guest size effects were observed to play an important role in host-mediated enantioselectivity.

Liquid crystal organization of self-assembling cyclic peptides.

Self-assembling cyclic peptides decorated with mesogens form porous columnar mesophases in which, depending on the number of hydrocarbon chains, double or single channels are formed along each column.