Nitti Andrea, Pacini Aurora, Pasini Dario
Department of Chemistry, University of Pavia, Viale Taramelli, 12-27100 Pavia, Italy.
INSTM Research Unit, University of Pavia, Viale Taramelli, 12-27100 Pavia, Italy.
Nanomaterials (Basel). 2017 Jul 4;7(7):167. doi: 10.3390/nano7070167.
Organic nanotubes, as assembled nanospaces, in which to carry out host-guest chemistry, reversible binding of smaller species for transport, sensing, storage or chemical transformation purposes, are currently attracting substantial interest, both as biological ion channel mimics, or for addressing tailored material properties. Nature's materials and machinery are universally asymmetric, and, for chemical entities, controlled asymmetry comes from chirality. Together with carbon nanotubes, conformationally stable molecular building blocks and macrocycles have been used for the realization of organic nanotubes, by means of their assembly in the third dimension. In both cases, chiral properties have started to be fully exploited to date. In this paper, we review recent exciting developments in the synthesis and assembly of chiral nanotubes, and of their functional properties. This review will include examples of either molecule-based or macrocycle-based systems, and will try and rationalize the supramolecular interactions at play for the three-dimensional (3D) assembly of the nanoscale architectures.
有机纳米管作为组装而成的纳米空间，可在其中进行主客体化学，即较小分子的可逆结合，以用于运输、传感、存储或化学转化目的。目前，有机纳米管作为生物离子通道模拟物或用于实现定制材料特性，正引起广泛关注。自然界的材料和机制普遍具有不对称性，对于化学实体而言，可控的不对称性源于手性。与碳纳米管一起，构象稳定的分子构建单元和大环已被用于通过在三维空间中的组装来实现有机纳米管。在这两种情况下，手性特性至今已开始得到充分利用。在本文中，我们综述了手性纳米管合成与组装及其功能特性方面的最新令人兴奋的进展。本综述将包括基于分子或基于大环的系统实例，并尝试阐明在纳米级结构的三维（3D）组装中起作用的超分子相互作用。
