Blueprint for a self-sustained European Centre for service provision in safe and sustainable innovation for nanotechnology.

The coming years are expected to bring rapid changes in the nanotechnology regulatory landscape, with the establishment of a new framework for nano-risk governance, in silico approaches for characterisation and risk assessment of nanomaterials, and novel procedures for the early identification and management of nanomaterial risks. In this context, Safe(r)-by-Design (SbD) emerges as a powerful preventive approach to support the development of safe and sustainable (SSbD) nanotechnology-based products and processes throughout the life cycle. This paper summarises the work undertaken to develop a blueprint for the deployment and operation of a permanent European Centre of collaborating laboratories and research organisations supporting safe innovation in nanotechnologies. The proposed entity, referred to as "the Centre", will establish a 'one-stop shop' for nanosafety-related services and a central contact point for addressing stakeholder questions about nanosafety. Its operation will rely on significant business, legal and market knowledge, as well as other tools developed and acquired through the EU-funded EC4SafeNano project and subsequent ongoing activities. The proposed blueprint adopts a demand-driven service update scheme to allow the necessary vigilance and flexibility to identify opportunities and adjust its activities and services in the rapidly evolving regulatory and nano risk governance landscape. The proposed Centre will play a major role as a conduit to transfer scientific knowledge between the research and commercial laboratories or consultants able to provide high quality nanosafety services, and the end-users of such services (e.g., industry, SMEs, consultancy firms, and regulatory authorities). The Centre will harmonise service provision, and bring novel risk assessment and management approaches, e.g. in silico methodologies, closer to practice, notably through SbD/SSbD, and decisively support safe and sustainable innovation of industrial production in the nanotechnology industry according to the European Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability.

A supramolecular ruthenium macrocycle with high catalytic activity for water oxidation that mechanistically mimics photosystem II.

Mimicking the ingenuity of nature and exploiting the billions of years over which natural selection has developed numerous effective biochemical conversions is one of the most successful strategies in a chemist's toolbox. However, an inability to replicate the elegance and efficiency of the oxygen-evolving complex of photosystem II (OEC-PSII) in its oxidation of water into O2 is a significant bottleneck in the development of a closed-loop sustainable energy cycle. Here, we present an artificial metallosupramolecular macrocycle that gathers three Ru(bda) centres (bda = 2,2'-bipyridine-6,6'-dicarboxylic acid) that catalyses water oxidation. The macrocyclic architecture accelerates the rate of water oxidation via a water nucleophilic attack mechanism, similar to the mechanism exhibited by OEC-PSII, and reaches remarkable catalytic turnover frequencies >100 s(-1). Photo-driven water oxidation yields outstanding activity, even in the nM concentration regime, with a turnover number of >1,255 and turnover frequency of >13.1 s(-1).

Bright Fluorescence and Host-Guest Sensing with a Nanoscale M4L6 Tetrahedron Accessed by Self-Assembly of Zinc-Imine Chelate Vertices and Perylene Bisimide Edges.

A highly luminescent Zn4L6 tetrahedron is reported with 3.8 nm perylene bisimide edges and hexadentate Zn(II)-imine chelate vertices. Replacing Fe(II) and monoamines commonly utilized in subcomponent self-assembly with Zn(II) and tris(2-aminoethyl)amine provides access to a metallosupramolecular host with the rare combination of structural integrity at concentrations <10(-7) mol L(-1) and an exceptionally high fluorescence quantum yield of Φ(em) =0.67. Encapsulation of multiple perylene or coronene guest molecules is accompanied by strong luminescence quenching. We anticipate this self-assembly strategy may be generalized to improve access to brightly fluorescent coordination cages tailored for host-guest light-harvesting, photocatalysis, and sensing.

Coupled molecular switching processes in ordered mono- and multilayers of stimulus-responsive rotaxanes on gold surfaces.

Interfaces provide the structural basis for function as, for example, encountered in nature in the membrane-embedded photosystem or in technology in solar cells. Synthetic functional multilayers of molecules cooperating in a coupled manner can be fabricated on surfaces through layer-by-layer self-assembly. Ordered arrays of stimulus-responsive rotaxanes undergoing well-controlled axle shuttling are excellent candidates for coupled mechanical motion. Such stimulus-responsive surfaces may help integrate synthetic molecular machines in larger systems exhibiting even macroscopic effects or generating mechanical work from chemical energy through cooperative action. The present work demonstrates the successful deposition of ordered mono- and multilayers of chemically switchable rotaxanes on gold surfaces. Rotaxane mono- and multilayers are shown to reversibly switch in a coupled manner between two ordered states as revealed by linear dichroism effects in angle-resolved NEXAFS spectra. Such a concerted switching process is observed only when the surfaces are well packed, while less densely packed surfaces lacking lateral order do not exhibit such effects.

Subcomponent self-assembly of a 4†nm M4 L6 tetrahedron with Zn(II) vertices and perylene bisimide dye edges.

Formation of a tetrahedron with >4 nm perylene bisimide (PBI) dye edges and Zn(II) vertices in a one-pot 22 component self-assembly reaction is reported. The luminescent polyhedron equilibrates to a Zn2 L3 helicate and disassembles upon dilution. Insights into the subcomponent self-assembly of extended PBI ligands help to refine design rules for constructing large photofunctional metallosupramolecular hosts.

Embedding of a ruthenium(ii) water oxidation catalyst into nanofibers via self-assembly.

A novel ruthenium(ii) water oxidation catalyst equipped with axial perylene bisimide ligands that self-assembled into nanofibers was synthesized. This fiber-embedded catalyst exhibited improved performance compared with a monomeric reference for the oxidative water splitting reaction.

Principal component analysis (PCA)-assisted time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS): a versatile method for the investigation of self-assembled monolayers and multilayers as precursors for the bottom-up approach of nanoscaled devices.

The production of high-quality self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) followed by layer-by-layer (LbL) self-assembly of macrocycles is essential for nanotechnology applications based on functional surface films. To help interpret the large amount of data generated by a standard ToF-SIMS measurement, principal component analysis (PCA) was used. For two examples, the advantages of a combination of ToF-SIMS and PCA for quality control and for the optimization of layer-by-layer self-assembly are shown. The first example investigates how different cleaning methods influence the quality of SAM template formation. The second example focuses on the LbL self-assembly of macrocycles and the corresponding stepwise surface modification.

Synthesis and coordinative layer-by-layer deposition of pyridine-functionalized gold nanoparticles and tetralactam macrocycles on silicon substrates.

Coordination chemistry was applied to deposit pyridine-functionalized gold nanoparticles on silicon substrates. The particles were synthesized through the Brust/Schiffrin route with a subsequent ligand exchange reaction yielding well-defined particles of two different sizes. Multilayer deposition was carried out on a pyridine-terminated SAM, anchored on a hydroxyl-terminated silicon surface. Analogously, Hunter/Vögtle-type tetralactam macrocycle multilayers were deposited as well as mixed layers containing both either in an alternating sequence or as a macrocycle multilayer with a terminating nanoparticle layer. These composite layers were examined with respect to their ability to bind squaraine axles in the macrocycle cavities. The amount of guest bound is higher for the composite layer with alternating macrocycles and nanoparticles.