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Yonsei News

[YONSEI NEWS] Research about ion-mediated supramolecule by Sessler has been published in Science

연세대학교 홍보팀 / news@yonsei.ac.kr
2010-09-20

The world’s renowned scholar, Jonathan L. Sessler, has published his research with his colleagues in the world's leading journal in original scientific research, Science (September issue, 2010). Professor Sessler was invited to the department of chemistry, Yonsei University, December 2008 as a full-time professor based on the World Class University (WCU) Project on Smart Nano Conjugates supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. Professor Jonathan L. Sessler has synthesized Host-Guest supramolecular complexes with ion-mediated character and revealed physical and chemical properties of those compounds for the first time. Ion-mediate is an important part for diverse life sciences such as electron transfer in vivo. Despite of that, up to now, studies on ion-mediate have been limited to a few molecular systems. Furthermore, no one has investigated Host-Guest supramolecular complexes which are one of the ways to connect biological macromolecules. Researcher Jung Su Park, the first author of the paper, and Professor Jonathan L. Sessler, the corresponding author, and his collaborators have studied the formation of supramolecular complexes to link calixpyrrole as a host molecule with guest molecules by an ion-mediated way under the presence of various anions. According to the result of this research, binding constant between a host and a guest molecule as well as molecular structure remarkably depends on the property and kind of anion attached to the supramolecule complexes. Especially the spherical supramolecule induced by the guest such as bisimidazolium quinone (BIQ2+) obviously shows ion-mediated properties. We can also observe interesting electron transfer phenomena in this complex under various experimental conditions. In detail, X-ray crystal structure analysis and photophysical spectroscopic method mainly have supported this research. They are expected to determine the mechanism of the electron transfer reaction in vivo. WCU program which supported this research is a nation-wide science project with the purpose of improving the education and research environment of domestic universities by inviting outstanding foreign scholars as full-time professors. Professor Jonathan L. Sessler has been invited through the WCU program entitled “Center for Smart Nano Conjugates” in Department of Chemistry at Yonsei University. He has investigated the synthesis of various supramolecular Nano complexes and their properties.