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Like a neat demonstration of paper origami, Dutch researchers have designed a polymer that folds up on itself when exposed to a flash of light. If further developed, these special polymers could be designed as artificial catalysts.
The team led by Tristan Mes of the Eindhoven University of Technology in The Netherlands reported the creation of a synthetic polymer with benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxamide (BTA) side chains. The side chains are connected by hydrogen bonds. Normally, these bonds pull the polymer in on itself.
But by protecting the BTA side chains with special nitrobenzyl groups, the team added a trigger so that the polymer only folded when exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light. The flash of UV light cleaved the nitrobenzyl groups and let the hydrogen bonds of the BTA side chains pull the polymer into a ball.
But as Laura Howes explains in her Chemistry World article, the researchers compare the polymer folding to the folding of proteins into their characteristic 3-dimensional structures. But outside experts aren’t positive that the analogy holds true:
But Andrew Wilson of the University of Leeds, UK, says he is not so sure. ‘I think what’s really cool is that you get different degrees of H-bond mediated collapse depending on irradiation time and temperature – this hasn’t really been demonstrated before and is of course a function of biological macromolecules.’ But Wilson is unsure that folding is the right word for what the polymers do, explaining that pulling apart the polymer and allowing it to collapse will lead to a different superstructure each time, unlike proteins.
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