Thermal behavior, structure, dynamic properties of aqueous glycine solutions confined in mesoporous silica MCM-41 investigated by x-ray diffraction and quasi-elastic neutron scattering

Amino Acid Polymerization on Silica Surfaces

The polymerization of unactivated amino acids (AAs) is an important topic because of its applications in various fields including industrial medicinal chemistry and prebiotic chemistry. Silica as a promoter for this reaction, is of great interest owing to its large abundance and low cost. The amide/peptide bond synthesis on silica has been largely demonstrated but suffers from a lack of knowledge regarding its reaction mechanism, the key parameters, and surface features that influence AA adsorption and reactivity, the selectivity of the reaction product, the role of water in the reaction, etc. The present review addresses these problems by summarizing experimental and modeling results from the literature and attempts to rationalize some apparent divergences in published results. After briefly presenting the main types of silica surface sites and other relevant macroscopic features, we discuss the different deposition procedures of AAs, whose importance is often neglected. We address the possible AA adsorption mechanisms including covalent grafting and H-bonding and show that they are highly dependent on silanol types and density. We then consider how the adsorption mechanisms determine the occurrence and outcome of AA condensation (formation of cyclic dimers or of long linear chains), and outline some recent results that suggest significant polymerization selectivity in systems containing several AAs, as well as the formation of specific elements of secondary structure in the growing polypeptide chains.

Confinement effects on glass-forming mixtures: Insights from a combined experimental approach to aqueous ethylene glycol solutions in silica pores

We perform nuclear magnetic resonance, broadband dielectric spectroscopy, and differential scanning calorimetry studies to ascertain the dynamical behaviors of aqueous ethylene glycol (EG) solutions in silica pores over broad temperature ranges. Both translational and rotational motions are analyzed, and the pore diameter (2.4–9.2 nm) and the EG concentration (12–57 mol. %) are varied, leading to fully liquid or partially crystalline systems. It is found that the translational diffusion coefficient strongly decreases when the diameter is reduced, resulting in a slowdown of nearly three orders of magnitude in the narrowest pores, while the confinement effects on the rotational correlation times are moderate. For the fully liquid solutions, we attribute bulk-like and slowed down reorientation processes to the central and interfacial pore regions, respectively. This coexistence is found in all the studied pores, and, hence, the range of the wall effects on the solution dynamics does not exceed ∼1 nm. Compared to the situation in the bulk, the concentration dependence is reduced in confinements, implying that the specific interactions of the molecular species with the silica walls lead to preferential adsorption. On the other hand, bulk-like structural relaxation is not observed in the partially frozen samples, where the liquid is sandwiched between the silica walls and the ice crystallites. Under such circumstances, there is another relaxation process with a weaker temperature dependence, which is observed in various kinds of partially frozen aqueous systems and denoted as the x process.

Structural Characterization of Proteins Adsorbed at Nanoporous Materials

A nanoporous material has been applied for the development of functional nanobiomaterials by utilizing its uniform pore structure and large adsorption capacity. The structure and stability of biomacromolecules, such as peptide, oligonucleotide, and protein, are primary factors to govern the performance of nanobiomaterials, so that their direct characterization methodologies are in progress. In this review, we focus on recent topics in the structural characterization of protein molecules adsorbed at a nanoporous material with uniform meso-sized pores. The thermal stabilities of the adsorbed proteins are also summarized to discuss whether the structure of the adsorbed protein molecules can be stabilized or not.