Design of a synthetic foldamer that modifies the growth of calcite crystals.
An oligopyridine foldamer, whose structure is dictated by bifurcated hydrogen bonds, was designed to recognize the surface of calcite through three carboxylates, projected from one face of the molecule. At low concentrations of the trimer, elongated calcite crystals with angular, teeth-like growths, identified as {0l} faces, were exclusively formed. In the presence of a related monomer, only calcite rhombohedra are formed, indicating that it is the ordered array of carboxylates that causes the morphological changes, via a specific interaction between the foldamer and the newly expressed faces of the growing calcite crystals.
Estroff
Lara A
LA
Yale University, Department of Chemistry, New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8107, USA.
Incarvito
Christopher D
CD
Hamilton
Andrew D
AD
D000814:Aniline Compounds / Q000737:chemistry; D002119:Calcium Carbonate / Q000737:chemistry*; D003460:Crystallization; D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray; D014233:Tricarboxylic Acids / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry
D000814:Aniline Compounds; D014233:Tricarboxylic Acids; D002119:Calcium Carbonate