Our visitors from Italy:
Prof. Prins studies dynamic supramolecular systems that have the potential to grow, communicate, move and evolve. This is achievable by designing systems that are able to populate high-energy states by exploiting energy-dissipating processes. This capacity implies that such systems may store and transfer energy, which would bring us closer to implementing the marvelous properties of living systems in synthetic ones.
Topics: Functional assemblies, dissipative systems, systems chemistry
Ragazzon, G. & Prins, L.J. Energy Consumption in Chemical-Fuel Driven Self-Assembly Nat. Nanotechnol. 2018, 13, 882-889. link
Maiti, S., Fortunati, I., Ferrante, C.. Scrimin, P. & Prins, L.J. Dissipative self-assembly of vesicular nanoreactors. Nature Chem. 2016, 8, 725-731. link
Prins, L.J. Emergence of complex chemistry on and organic monolayer. Acc. Chem. Res. 2015, 48, 1920-1928. link
Prof. Scrimin is interested in multivalent catalysis within self-assembled systems. In such systems, simultaneous interactions between multiple sites act to generate dramatic accelerations in reaction rate. He has used these principles to design nanozymes that possess several of the features of Nature’s enzymes.
Topics: Cooperative catalysis, functionalised gold nanoparticles, multivalency
Diez-Castellnou, M., Mancin, F., Scrimin, P. Efficient phosphodiester cleaving nanozymes resulting from multivalency and local medium polarity control. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2014, 136, 1158-1161. link
Zaramella, D., Scrimin, P., Prins, L.J. Self-assembly of a catalytic multivalent peptide-nanoparticle complex. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2012, 8396-8399. link
Prof. Mancin studies functional nanoparticles – metal nanoclusters that are stabilised by a monolayer of organic molecules. The ability of molecules to self-organise on the surface of the nanoparticles allows control and modulation of their physical and chemical properties. Such nanoparticles have been designed to have highly sophisticated functions such as recognition, sensing, catalysis and stimuli-responsiveness.
Topics: Functionalised gold nanoparticles for sensing and biomedical applications
Riccardi, L., Gabrielli, L., Sun, X., De Biasi, F., Rastrelli, F., Mancin, F., De Vivo, M., Nanoparticle-Based Receptors Mimic Protein-Ligand Recognition. Chem, 2017, 3, 92-109. link
Bonacchi, S., Cantelli, A., Battistelli, G., Guidetti, G., Calvaresi, M., Manzi, J., Gabrielli, L., Ramadori, F., Gambarin, A., Mancin, F., Montalti, M. Photoswitchable NIR-Emitting Gold Nanoparticles. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2016, 55, 11064-11068. link
Salvia, M.-V., Salassa, G., Rastrelli, F., Mancin, F. Turning Supramolecular Receptors into Chemosensors by Nanoparticle-Assisted “nMR Chemosensing”. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2015, 137, 11399-11406. link
Prof. Rastrelli is an expert in the use of NMR for the study of nanosystems. He designs new NMR experiments to investigate the interactions of monolayer-covered nanoparticles with various small molecule analytes, including for the detection of designer drugs. He has also applied these techniques towards the emerging area of chromatographic NMR spectroscopy.
Topics: NMR of nanosystems for molecular sensing and chromatography
Gabrielli, L., Rosa-Gastaldo, D., Salvia, M.-V., Springhetti, S., Rastrelli, F., Mancin, F. Detection and identification of designer drugs by nanoparticle-based NMR chemosensing. Chem. Sci. 2018, 9, 4777-4784. link
González-García, T., Margola, T., Silvagni, A., Mancin, F., Rastrelli, F. Chromatographic NMR Spectroscopy with Hollow Silica Spheres Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2016, 55, 2733-2737. link
Salvia, M.-V., Ramadori, F., Springhetti, S., Diez-Castellnou, M., Perrone, B., Rastrelli, F., Mancin, F. Nanoparticle-assisted NMR detection of organic anions: From chemosensing to chromatography J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2015, 137, 886-892. link
Our Kiwi speakers:
and more to come…
NZ-Italy Meeting on Supramolecular and Materials Chemistry 