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Collaborative routes to clarifying the murky waters of aqueous supramolecular chemistry

Nature Chemistry volume 10, pages 8–16 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

On planet Earth, water is everywhere: the majority of the surface is covered with it; it is a key component of all life; its vapour and droplets fill the lower atmosphere; and even rocks contain it and undergo geomorphological changes because of it. A community of physical scientists largely drives studies of the chemistry of water and aqueous solutions, with expertise in biochemistry, spectroscopy and computer modelling. More recently, however, supramolecular chemists — with their expertise in macrocyclic synthesis and measuring supramolecular interactions — have renewed their interest in water-mediated non-covalent interactions. These two groups offer complementary expertise that, if harnessed, offer to accelerate our understanding of aqueous supramolecular chemistry and water writ large. This Review summarizes the state-of-the-art of the two fields, and highlights where there is latent chemical space for collaborative exploration by the two groups.

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Figure 1: Illustration of how gross shape influences solute solvation.
Figure 2: Illustrative water-soluble hosts (not all shown with water-solubilizing groups) and examples of foldamers.
Figure 3: The Hofmeister series for anions.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to express their sincere gratitude to the National Science Foundation for its generous support (NSF CHE-1450865) of a workshop that brought together the physical and supramolecular communities to discuss aqueous supramolecular chemistry. The authors also thank the participants of the workshop for their commitment to its success: H. Allen, E. Anslyn, P. Arora, H. Ashbaugh, D. Ben-Amotz, S. Bradforth, M. Cloninger, M. Duncan, A. Fuller, M. Gunner, M. Hillyer, R. Hooley, L. Isaacs, J. Jayawickramarajah, D. Johnson, M. Levine, N. Levinger, Y. Liu, P. Petersen, V. Pierre, L. Pratt, B. Rogers, J. Sessler, K. Sharp, B. Smith, D. Tobias, A. Urbach, B. Wang, M. Waters, S. Xantheas, C. Zanette and S. Zimmerman.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania, 16802, PA, USA

    Paul S. Cremer

  2. Department of Chemistry, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, IN 47045, USA

    Amar H. Flood

  3. Department of Chemistry, Tulane University, Louisiana, 70118, LA, USA

    Bruce C. Gibb

  4. Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, Irvine, CA92697, California, USA

    David L. Mobley

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  1. Paul S. Cremer
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  2. Amar H. Flood
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  3. Bruce C. Gibb
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  4. David L. Mobley
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the initial grant application, the running of the workshop, and writing the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Paul S. Cremer, Amar H. Flood, Bruce C. Gibb or David L. Mobley.

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Cremer, P., Flood, A., Gibb, B. et al. Collaborative routes to clarifying the murky waters of aqueous supramolecular chemistry. Nature Chem 10, 8–16 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.2894

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