Multifunctional water-soluble molecular capsules based on p-phosphonic acid calix[5]arene

Recent Updates on Supramolecular-Based Drug Delivery - Macrocycles and Supramolecular Gels

Supramolecules-based drug delivery has attracted significant recent research attention as it could enhance drug solubility, retention time, targeting, and stimuli responsiveness. Among the different supramolecules and assemblies, the macrocycles and the supramolecular hydrogels are the two important categories investigated to a greater extent. Here, we provide the most recent advancements in these categories. Under macrocycles, reports on drug delivery by cyclodextrins, cucurbiturils, calixarenes/pillararenes, crown ethers and porphyrins are detailed. The second category discusses the supramolecular hydrogels of macrocycles/polymers and low molecular weight gelators. The updated information provided could be helpful to advance R & D in this vital area.

Chiral Water-Soluble Molecular Capsules With Amphiphilic Interiors

We present the synthesis of new chiral water-soluble dimeric capsules by the multicomponent Mannich reaction between charged amino acids (glutamic acid or arginine), resorcinarene, and formaldehyde and by subsequent self-assembly. The zwitterionic character of the backbones enables electrostatic interactions between arms and induces self-assembly of dimeric capsules, namely, (L-ArgR)₂ and (L-GluR)₂, in water with a wide range of pH, as demonstrated by NMR, diffusion coefficient measurement, and circular dichroism. The assembly/disassembly processes are fast on the NMR timescale. This mode of dimerization leaves side chains available for additional interactions and creates chiral cavities of mixed hydrophobic/hydrophilic character. According to this characteristic, capsules do not bind fully nonpolar or fully polar guests but effectively encapsulate a variety of chiral molecules with mixed polar/apolar characters (aliphatic and aromatic aldehydes, epoxides, alcohols, carboxylic acids, amines, and amino acids) with moderate strength. We also demonstrate the formation of heterocapsules (GluR) (ArgR) (homo- and heterochiral) that utilize additional interactions between charged acidic and basic side chains and have better encapsulation properties than those of the homodimers.

Vortex Fluidic Chemical Transformations

Driving chemical transformations in dynamic thin films represents a rapidly thriving and diversifying research area. Dynamic thin films provide a number of benefits including large surface areas, high shearing rates, rapid heat and mass transfer, micromixing and fluidic pressure waves. Combinations of these effects provide an avant-garde style of conducting chemical reactions with surprising and unusual outcomes. The vortex fluidic device (VFD) has proved its capabilities in accelerating and increasing the efficiencies of numerous organic, materials and biochemical reactions. This Minireview surveys transformations that have benefited from VFD-mediated processing, and identifies concepts driving the effectiveness of vortex-based dynamic thin films.

p-Phosphonated Calix[n]arene Stabilizes Superparamagnetic Nanoparticles for Nitrate and Phosphate Uptake

Highly faceted superparamagnetic magnetite nanoparticles roughly 11 nm in diameter are readily accessible in the presence of p-phosphonated calix[n]arenes of different ring sizes (n=4, 5 and 6), through the use of a simple co-precipitation technique. In contrast, the larger calix[8]arene affords spherical particles of comparable size. The maximum magnetization is 70-60 emu g^-1 , which decreases with increasing size of the calixarene macrocycle, and the evidence indicates that the calixarenes bind to the surface of the nanoparticles via the phosphonate head groups rather than the phenolic oxygen centers. The stabilized nanoparticles show dual functionality: they remove up to 62 % of nitrate nitrogen and 48 % of phosphate from an aqueous effluent after 24 hours at concentrations of only 1 g L^-1 of calixarene-coated nanoparticles.

Shear Stress Induced Fabrication of Dandelion-Shaped Lanthanide Phosphate Nanoparticles

Lanthanide phosphate nanoparticles were co-precipitated under continuous flow in a vortex fluidic device in the presence of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) of different molecular weights and at varying rotational speeds and tilt angles. Dandelion-shaped lanthanide phosphate particles were produced at rotation speeds of 5000 rpm and 7000 rpm. In contrast, individual rods formed at 9000 rpm. Transition electron microscope images reveal changes in morphology of the dandelion-shaped nanoparticles with changes in the chain length of PVP or tilt angle of the tube of the vortex fluidic device. These morphological changes are likely to arise from different wrapping and aggregation of the nanoparticles induced by the PVP polymer under shear.

Vortex fluidics synthesis of polymer coated superparamagnetic magnetite nanoparticles

Polymer coated superparamagnetic magnetite nanoparticles with improved magnetic properties are accessible under continuous flow conditions within a vortex fluidic device.

Towards aryl C-N bond formation in dynamic thin films

C-N bond forming reactions are important in organic chemistry. A thin film microfluidic vortex fluidic device (VFD) operating under confined mode affords N-aryl compounds from 2-chloropyrazine and the corresponding amine, without the need for a transition metal catalyst.

Shear induced carboplatin binding within the cavity of a phospholipid mimic for increased anticancer efficacy

Vesicles 107 ± 19 nm in diameter, based on the self-assembly of tetra-para-phosphonomethyl calix[4]- arene bearing n-hexyl moieties attached to the phenolic oxygen centres, are effective in binding carboplatin within the cavity of the macrocycle under shear induced within a dynamic thin film in a continuous flow vortex fluidic device. Post shearing the vesicles maintain similar diameters and retain carboplatin within the cavity of the calixarene in a hierarchical structure, with their size and morphology investigated using DLS, TEM, SEM and AFM. Location of the carboplatin was confirmed using NMR, FTIR, ESI-MS and EFTEM, with molecular modelling favouring the polar groups of carboplatin hydrogen bonded to phosphonic acid moieties and the four member cyclobutane ring directed into the cavity of the calixarene. The loading efficiency and release profile of carboplatin was investigated using LC-TOF/MS, with the high loading of the drug achieved under shear and preferential released at pH 5.5, offering scope for anti-cancer drug delivery. The hierarchical structured vesicles increase the efficacy of carboplatin by 4.5 fold on ovarian cancer cells, lowered the IC₅₀ concentration by 10 fold, and markedly increased the percent of cells in the S-phase (DNA replication) of the cell cycle.

Self-assembled calixarene aligned patterning of noble metal nanoparticles on graphene

Patterns of noble metal nanoparticles (NMNPs) of ruthenium and platinum are formed on p-phosphonic acid calix[8]arene stabilised graphene in water. This involves hydrogen gas induced reduction of metal ions absorbed on the stabilised graphene, with TEM revealing the patterns being comprised of domains of parallel arrays of NMNPs ∼7 nm apart. The domains are orientated in three directions on each graphene sheet at an angle of ∼60° or ∼120° with respect to each other. AFM of self-assembled p-phosphonic acid calix[8]arene on the surface of a highly ordered pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) revealed a similar pattern, implying that the orientation of the assembly of p-phosphonic acid calix[8]arene is governed by the hexagonal motif of graphite/graphene.

Optimising a vortex fluidic device for controlling chemical reactivity and selectivity

A vortex fluidic device (VFD) involving a rapidly rotating tube open at one end forms dynamic thin films at high rotational speed for finite sub-millilitre volumes of liquid, with shear within the films depending on the speed and orientation of the tube. Continuous flow operation of the VFD where jet feeds of solutions are directed to the closed end of the tube provide additional tuneable shear from the viscous drag as the liquid whirls along the tube. The versatility of this simple, low cost microfluidic device, which can operate under confined mode or continuous flow is demonstrated in accelerating organic reactions, for model Diels-Alder dimerization of cyclopentadienes, and sequential aldol and Michael addition reactions, in accessing unusual 2,4,6-triarylpyridines. Residence times are controllable for continuous flow processing with the viscous drag dominating the shear for flow rates >0.1 mL/min in a 10 mm diameter tube rotating at >2000 rpm.

Shear flow assisted decoration of carbon nano-onions with platinum nanoparticles

Aqueous based controlled decoration of platinum nanoparticles on plasma treated carbon nano-onions (CNOs) occurs within the shear flow generated by a vortex fluidic device (VFD), using ascorbic acid as the reducing agent, with the electrocatalytic potential of the resulting Pt-NPs@CNOs nano-composites demonstrated.

Vortex fluidic entrapment of functional microalgal cells in a magnetic polymer matrix

Composite materials based on superparamagnetic magnetite nanoparticles embedded in polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) are generated in a continuous flow vortex fluidic device (VFD). The same device is effective in entrapping microalgal cells within this material, such that the functional cells can be retrieved from aqueous dispersions using an external magnet.

Shear induced formation of carbon and boron nitride nano-scrolls

A 'top down' synthesis of carbon and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) nano-scrolls has been developed using the shear forces within dynamic thin films of N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) generated on a rapidly rotating spinning disc processor (SDP), along with a theoretical understanding of the formation of the scrolls.

Multifunctional p-phosphonated calixarenes

p-Phosphonic acid calix[n]arenes and their O-alkylated lower rim analogues are remarkably versatile macrocycles, with applications in selective diameter uptake of single walled carbon nano-tubes, as surfactants in stabilising and protecting nano-particles and graphene sheets, as crystal growth modifiers for inorganic systems, in encapsulating molecules of anti-cancer carboplatin, self assembly into nano-arrays, including nano-fibres and molecular capsules, and for binding metal ions including biologically relevant Ca(2+). They are readily accessible via five or six high yielding steps from the parent p-Bu(t) substituted compounds.