TOWARD SYNTHETIC CONSTRUCTION AND FUNCTIONAL DEMONSTRATION OF A NEW CLASS OF SYNTHETIC ION CHANNELS WITH TUNABLE INTERIOR PROPERTIES

Through this study I have systematically investigated a new class of synthetic ion channels with tunable interior properties. These channels consist of circular aromatic ?-peptides attached to a linear rigid scaffold. The current state-of-art on the research of synthetic ion channels was discussed. Previous works on H-bonded macrocyclic aromatic pentamers were also summarized. Compared with the works reported by other groups, our synthetic ion channels possess unique advantages as outlined below: (1) A channel height of ~ 35 ? from the top to the bottom.(2)A H-bonding-rigidified linear scaffold able to support three vertically aligned ion-transporting circular units.(3) Tunable interior properties for fine-tuningion-binding specificity, channel cavity and interior hydrophobicity (4) An easily modifiable outer surface. The experimental procedures of synthetic ion channel molecules are described in details that consist of 57 steps of synthesis. These experimental steps enable a final construction of a channel molecule with a molecular formula of C273H371N35O51 originating from very simple starting chemical materials such as acetaldehyde. At last, ion-transporting results of ion channels by using LUVs were discussed. We found that the transport of proton was a very fast process and compound 8k was able to transport ions in the decreasing order of Li+ > Na+ >K+?Rb+>Cs+.

Author dc:creator

• SHEN SHENG

• Ion channel ,organic synthesis, 57 steps，Tunable interior properties