Ordered Matter Science Research Center, Southeast University, JiuLongHu campus, JiangNing, Nanjing 211189, China.
Department of Physics, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, China.
Nat Commun. 2017 Feb 20;8:14551. doi: 10.1038/ncomms14551.
The process of molecular recognition is the assembly of two or more molecules through weak interactions. Information in the process of molecular recognition can be transmitted to us via physical signals, which may find applications in sensing and switching. The conventional signals are mainly limited to light signal. Here, we describe the recognition of diols with Cu(1,10-phenlothroline)SeO and the transduction of discrete recognition events into dielectric and/or ferroelectric signals. We observe that systems of Cu(1,10-phenlothroline)SeO·(diol) exhibit significant dielectric and/or ferroelectric dependence on different diol molecules. The compounds including ethane-1,2-diol or propane-1,2-diol just show small temperature-dependent dielectric anomalies and no reversible polarization, while the compound including ethane-1,3-diol shows giant temperature-dependent dielectric anomalies as well as ferroelectric reversible spontaneous polarization. This finding shows that dielectricity and/or ferroelectricity has the potential to be used for signalling molecular recognition.
分子识别过程是通过弱相互作用将两个或多个分子组装在一起。分子识别过程中的信息可以通过物理信号传递给我们，这可能在传感和开关方面有应用。传统信号主要限于光信号。在这里，我们描述了 Cu(1,10-邻菲咯啉)SeO 对二醇的识别以及离散识别事件转化为介电和/或铁电信号的过程。我们观察到 Cu(1,10-邻菲咯啉)SeO·(二醇)体系对不同二醇分子表现出显著的介电和/或铁电依赖性。包含乙烷-1,2-二醇或丙烷-1,2-二醇的化合物仅显示出小的温度相关介电异常且没有可逆极化，而包含乙烷-1,3-二醇的化合物则显示出巨大的温度相关介电异常以及铁电可逆自发极化。这一发现表明介电常数和/或铁电常数有可能用于信号分子识别。
