Institute for Complex Molecular Systems, Eindhoven University of Technology, PO Box 513, Eindhoven 5600 MB, The Netherlands.
Nat Commun. 2017 May 15;8:15420. doi: 10.1038/ncomms15420.
Numerous self-assembling molecules have been synthesized aiming at mimicking both the structural and dynamic properties found in living systems. Here we show the application of hydrogen/deuterium exchange (HDX) mass spectrometry (MS) to unravel the nanoscale organization and the structural dynamics of synthetic supramolecular polymers in water. We select benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxamide (BTA) derivatives that self-assemble in HO to illustrate the strength of this technique for supramolecular polymers. The BTA structure has six exchangeable hydrogen atoms and we follow their exchange as a function of time after diluting the HO solution with a 100-fold excess of DO. The kinetic H/D exchange profiles reveal that these supramolecular polymers in water are dynamically diverse; a notion that has previously not been observed using other techniques. In addition, we report that small changes in the molecular structure can be used to control the dynamics of synthetic supramolecular polymers in water.
已经合成了许多自组装分子，旨在模拟生命系统中发现的结构和动态特性。在这里，我们展示了氢/氘交换 (HDX) 质谱 (MS) 的应用，以揭示在水中合成超分子聚合物的纳米级组织和结构动力学。我们选择苯-1,3,5-三羧酸酰胺 (BTA) 衍生物，它们在 HO 中自组装，以说明该技术对于超分子聚合物的优势。BTA 结构有六个可交换的氢原子，我们在将 HO 溶液稀释 100 倍后用 DO 稀释后，随着时间的推移跟踪它们的交换。动力学 H/D 交换曲线揭示了这些在水中的超分子聚合物具有动态多样性；这一概念以前使用其他技术观察不到。此外，我们还报告说，分子结构的微小变化可用于控制水中合成超分子聚合物的动力学。
