Abstract
Methods allowing chemical reactions to be carried out on ultra-small scales in a controllable fashion are potentially important for a number of disciplines, including molecular electronics, photonics and molecular biology, and may provide fundamental insight into chemistry in confined spaces. Ultra-small-scale reactions also circumvent potential problems associated with reagent and product toxicity, and reduce energy consumption and waste generation. Here, we report a technique for performing chemical reactions on a zeptomole (10−21 mol) scale. We show that electrospun polymer nanofibres with a diameter of 100–300 nm can be loaded with reactants, and that the junctions formed between crossed nanofibres can function as attolitre-volume reactors. Exposure to heat or solvent vapours fuses the fibres and initiates the reaction. The reaction products can be analysed directly within the nanofibre junctions by fluorescence measurements and mass spectrometry, and solvent extraction of multiple reactors allows product identification by common micromethods such as high-performance liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry.
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Change history
16 March 2009
In the version of this Article originally published, in paragraph six of the main text, the concentration of reagents in the fibre after evaporation of the solvent was incorrectly given as 0.5 mol l-1, this should have read 0.5 mmol l-1. This has been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions of the Article.
27 March 2009
In the version of this Article originally published, the structure given in Fig. 3a for rhodamine 6G (compound 5) was incorrect. The error has now been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions.
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Acknowledgements
Financial support from the NSF (CHE No. 0750303, EXP-LA No. 0731153 to P.A.) and Bowling Green State University is gratefully acknowledged.
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P.A. and M.A.P. contributed equally to this work.
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Anzenbacher, P., Palacios, M. Polymer nanofibre junctions of attolitre volume serve as zeptomole-scale chemical reactors. Nature Chem 1, 80–86 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.125
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.125
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