Tuneable Control of Organocatalytic Activity through Host-Guest Chemistry.

Dynamic regulation of chemical reactivity is important in many complex chemical reaction networks, such as cascade reactions and signal transduction processes. Signal responsive catalysts could play a crucial role in regulating these reaction pathways. Recently, supramolecular encapsulation was reported to regulate the activities of artificial catalysts. We present a host-guest chemistry strategy to modulate the activity of commercially available synthetic organocatalysts. The molecular container cucurbit[7]uril was successfully applied to change the activity of four different organocatalysts and one initiator, enabling up- or down-regulation of the reaction rates of four different classes of chemical reactions. In most cases CB[7] encapsulation results in catalyst inhibition, however in one case catalyst activation by binding to CB[7] was observed. The mechanism behind this unexpected behavior was explored by NMR binding studies and pKa measurements. The catalytic activity can be instantaneously switched during operation, by addition of either supramolecular host or competitive binding molecules, and the reaction rate can be predicted with a kinetic model. Overall, this signal responsive system proves a promising tool to control catalytic activity.

Selective activation of organocatalysts by specific signals.

Reminiscent of signal transduction in biological systems, artificial catalysts whose activity can be controlled by physical or chemical signals would be of high interest in the design of chemical systems that can respond to their environment. Self-immolative chemistry offers a generic method for the development of catalysts that can be activated by different signals. To demonstrate the versatility of that concept, we synthesized organocatalysts that can be activated by three different signals and that can be used to control two different reactions. In this way the organocatalyst proline is designed as a pro-catalyst that is activated either by the chemical signal H2O2, by light or by the enzyme penicillin acylase. The pro-catalysts were used to exert temporal control over the rate of an aldol reaction and a Michael reaction.

Chemical signal activation of an organocatalyst enables control over soft material formation.

Cells can react to their environment by changing the activity of enzymes in response to specific chemical signals. Artificial catalysts capable of being activated by chemical signals are rare, but of interest for creating autonomously responsive materials. We present an organocatalyst that is activated by a chemical signal, enabling temporal control over reaction rates and the formation of materials. Using self-immolative chemistry, we design a deactivated aniline organocatalyst that is activated by the chemical signal hydrogen peroxide and catalyses hydrazone formation. Upon activation of the catalyst, the rate of hydrazone formation increases 10-fold almost instantly. The responsive organocatalyst enables temporal control over the formation of gels featuring hydrazone bonds. The generic design should enable the use of a large range of triggers and organocatalysts, and appears a promising method for the introduction of signal response in materials, constituting a first step towards achieving communication between artificial chemical systems.Enzymes regulated by chemical signals are common in biology, but few such artificial catalysts exist. Here, the authors design an aniline catalyst that, when activated by a chemical trigger, catalyses formation of hydrazone-based gels, demonstrating signal response in a soft material.

Negatively Charged Lipid Membranes Catalyze Supramolecular Hydrogel Formation.

In this contribution we show that biological membranes can catalyze the formation of supramolecular hydrogel networks. Negatively charged lipid membranes can generate a local proton gradient, accelerating the acid-catalyzed formation of hydrazone-based supramolecular gelators near the membrane. Synthetic lipid membranes can be used to tune the physical properties of the resulting multicomponent gels as a function of lipid concentration. Moreover, the catalytic activity of lipid membranes and the formation of gel networks around these supramolecular structures are controlled by the charge and phase behavior of the lipid molecules. Finally, we show that the insights obtained from synthetic membranes can be translated to biological membranes, enabling the formation of gel fibers on living HeLa cells.

Catalysis of Supramolecular Hydrogelation.

One often thinks of catalysts as chemical tools to accelerate a reaction or to have a reaction run under more benign conditions. As such, catalysis has a role to play in the chemical industry and in lab scale synthesis that is not to be underestimated. Still, the role of catalysis in living systems (cells, organisms) is much more extensive, ranging from the formation and breakdown of small molecules and biopolymers to controlling signal transduction cascades and feedback processes, motility, and mechanical action. Such phenomena are only recently starting to receive attention in synthetic materials and chemical systems. "Smart" soft materials could find many important applications ranging from personalized therapeutics to soft robotics to name but a few. Until recently, approaches to control the properties of such materials were largely dominated by thermodynamics, for instance, looking at phase behavior and interaction strength. However, kinetics plays a large role in determining the behavior of such soft materials, for instance, in the formation of kinetically trapped (metastable) states or the dynamics of component exchange. As catalysts can change the rate of a chemical reaction, catalysis could be used to control the formation, dynamics, and fate of supramolecular structures when the molecules making up these structures contain chemical bonds whose formation or exchange are susceptible to catalysis. In this Account, we describe our efforts to use synthetic catalysts to control the properties of supramolecular hydrogels. Building on the concept of synthesizing the assembling molecule in the self-assembly medium from nonassembling precursors, we will introduce the use of catalysis to change the kinetics of assembler formation and thereby the properties of the resulting material. In particular, we will focus on the synthesis of supramolecular hydrogels where the use of a catalyst provides access to gel materials with vastly different appearance and mechanical properties or controls localized gel formation and the growth of gel objects. As such, catalysis will be applied to create molecular materials that exist outside of chemical equilibrium. In all, using catalysts to control the properties of soft materials constitutes a new avenue for catalysis far beyond the traditional use in industrial and lab scale synthesis.