Browsing by Author "Lotsch, Bettina V."

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Open Access
Asymmetric Rh diene catalysis under confinement : isoxazole ring‐contraction in mesoporous solids
(2024) Marshall, Max; Dilruba, Zarfishan; Beurer, Ann‐Katrin; Bieck, Kira; Emmerling, Sebastian; Markus, Felix; Vogler, Charlotte; Ziegler, Felix; Fuhrer, Marina; Liu, Sherri S. Y.; Kousik, Shravan R.; Frey, Wolfgang; Traa, Yvonne; Bruckner, Johanna R.; Plietker, Bernd; Buchmeiser, Michael R.; Ludwigs, Sabine; Naumann, Stefan; Atanasova, Petia; Lotsch, Bettina V.; Zens, Anna; Laschat, Sabine
Covalent immobilization of chiral dienes in mesoporous solids for asymmetric heterogeneous catalysis is highly attractive. In order to study confinement effects in bimolecular vs monomolecular reactions, a series of pseudo‐C2‐symmetrical tetrahydropentalenes was synthesized and immobilized via click reaction on different mesoporous solids (silica, carbon, covalent organic frameworks) and compared with homogeneous conditions. Two types of Rh‐catalyzed reactions were studied: (a) bimolecular nucleophilic 1,2‐additions of phenylboroxine to N‐tosylimine and (b) monomolecular isomerization of isoxazole to 2H‐azirne. Polar support materials performed better than non‐polar ones. Under confinement, bimolecular reactions showed decreased yields, whereas yields in monomolecular reactions were only little affected. Regarding enantioselectivity the opposite trend was observed, i. e. effective enantiocontrol for bimolecular reactions but only little control for monomolecular reactions was found.
Open Access
Designing covalent organic framework‐based light‐driven microswimmers toward therapeutic applications
(2023) Sridhar, Varun; Yildiz, Erdost; Rodríguez‐Camargo, Andrés; Lyu, Xianglong; Yao, Liang; Wrede, Paul; Aghakhani, Amirreza; Akolpoglu, Birgul M.; Podjaski, Filip; Lotsch, Bettina V.; Sitti, Metin
While micromachines with tailored functionalities enable therapeutic applications in biological environments, their controlled motion and targeted drug delivery in biological media require sophisticated designs for practical applications. Covalent organic frameworks (COFs), a new generation of crystalline and nanoporous polymers, offer new perspectives for light‐driven microswimmers in heterogeneous biological environments including intraocular fluids, thus setting the stage for biomedical applications such as retinal drug delivery. Two different types of COFs, uniformly spherical TABP‐PDA‐COF sub‐micrometer particles and texturally nanoporous, micrometer‐sized TpAzo‐COF particles are described and compared as light‐driven microrobots. They can be used as highly efficient visible‐light‐driven drug carriers in aqueous ionic and cellular media. Their absorption ranging down to red light enables phototaxis even in deeper and viscous biological media, while the organic nature of COFs ensures their biocompatibility. Their inherently porous structures with ≈2.6 and ≈3.4 nm pores, and large surface areas allow for targeted and efficient drug loading even for insoluble drugs, which can be released on demand. Additionally, indocyanine green (ICG) dye loading in the pores enables photoacoustic imaging, optical coherence tomography, and hyperthermia in operando conditions. This real‐time visualization of the drug‐loaded COF microswimmers enables unique insights into the action of photoactive porous drug carriers for therapeutic applications.
Open Access
Probing self-diffusion of guest molecules in a covalent organic framework : simulation and experiment
(2024) Grunenberg, Lars; Keßler, Christopher; Teh, Tiong Wei; Schuldt, Robin; Heck, Fabian; Kästner, Johannes; Groß, Joachim; Hansen, Niels; Lotsch, Bettina V.
Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are a class of porous materials whose sorption properties have so far been studied primarily by physisorption. Quantifying the self-diffusion of guest molecules inside their nanometer-sized pores allows for a better understanding of confinement effects or transport limitations and is thus essential for various applications ranging from molecular separation to catalysis. Using a combination of pulsed field gradient nuclear magnetic resonance measurements and molecular dynamics simulations, we have studied the self-diffusion of acetonitrile and chloroform in the 1D pore channels of two imine-linked COFs (PI-3-COF) with different levels of crystallinity and porosity. The higher crystallinity and porosity sample exhibited anisotropic diffusion for MeCN parallel to the pore direction, with a diffusion coefficient of Dpar = 6.1(3) × 10-10 m2 s-1 at 300 K, indicating 1D transport and a 7.4-fold reduction in self-diffusion compared to the bulk liquid. This finding aligns with molecular dynamics simulations predicting 5.4-fold reduction, assuming an offset-stacked COF layer arrangement. In the low-porosity sample, more frequent diffusion barriers result in isotropic, yet significantly reduced diffusivities (DB = 1.4(1) × 10-11 m2 s-1). Diffusion coefficients for chloroform at 300 K in the pores of the high- (Dpar = 1.1(2) × 10-10 m2 s-1) and low-porosity (DB = 4.5(1) × 10-12 m2 s-1) samples reproduce these trends. Our multimodal study thus highlights the significant influence of real structure effects such as stacking faults and grain boundaries on the long-range diffusivity of molecular guest species while suggesting efficient intracrystalline transport at short diffusion times.