Supramolecular Chemistry

Catalog description

Supramolecular chemistry involves the use of noncovalent bonding interactions to assemble molecules into stable, well-defined structures. This course will provide students with an introduction to this exciting field of research, which is finding increasing applications in the biological and materials sciences, nanotechnology and medicine. Students will be introduced to essential background concepts such as types of noncovalent bonding and strategies for the design of supramolecular assemblies. Readings from monographs and classroom lectures by the instructor will cover this material. Students will then begin to read about applications of supramolecular chemistry from the scientific literature, learning to compare articles, to evaluate the quality of the data and interpretations reached by the authors, to use the knowledge gained from these readings and discussions to predict the outcomes of related experiments, and to ultimately be able to design their own experiments to answer research questions. Meeting hours set by instructor, enrollment limited with priority given to sophomore chemistry majors. Prerequisites: 09-219 Min. grade C or 09-217 Min. grade C