Organic chemists can synthesize almost any compound and prove the identity by characterizing its properties. An increasingly important field of characterization is that of molecular interactions beyond those of chemical reactions such as between enzymes/receptors and their substrates. In a wider perspective, molecular organization into structured systems is targeted.

This research area is often referred to as supramolecular chemistry, where the molecules interacting with each other to form supramolecular systems are known as host-guest systems.

In this project, we develop host-guest systems that can be used for structural characterization of organic compounds using nuclear magnetic resonsonance (NMR) spectroscopy. These "molecular tools" contain a rigid host molecule that can bind to an organic ligand, the target for structural characterization. When binding to the host, the structure of the ligand is locked, and host-guest interactions generate additional information. Thus, the problem of structural characterization of flexible molecules in solution can be simplified. The area is closely connected to that of self-associating systems.

In related projects, we study interactions within one molecule, for example hydrogen bonds within small peptides and peptidomimetic compounds with β-hairpin secondary structure, or light-induced electron transfer reactions between a dye and an electron-capturing unit such as [60]fullerene or the semiconductor TiO2


Read more »

Contact:
Helena Grennberg
Adolf Gogoll
Lars Baltzer


Departments:
Department of Biochemistry and Organic Chemistry


Keywords:
chemistry, organic chemistry, NMR, magnetic resonance, host-guest, peptidomimetic, complex, conformation, synthetic receptor, electron transfer, fullerenes, titanium oxide,


The following undergraduate programs at Uppsala University are related to this research:
» Master of Science programme in Chemical Engineering
» Master programme in Chemistry