The 611 th meeting of the Sydney University Chemical Society will be held on Wednesday 12th October in Le Fèvre Lecture Theatre 2 of the Chemistry Building on the campus of The University of Sydney. The speaker will be Professor Roeland Nolte who will present the
2005 Cornforth and Lions Lecture.
Bio-inspired Architectures by Programmed Assembly
Department of Organic Chemistry, Institute for Molecules and Materials, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
During its long process of evolution nature has found many ways to
construct molecules and molecular systems which are unparalleled with
regard to the complexity of their architectures, and the
sophistication by which they perform their tasks and functions.
Over the last two centuries many leading chemists, such as Cornforth
(Nobel prize 1975), have been able to gradually unravel many of
nature's mysteries and have shown us how to synthesize molecules of
increasing complexity and size.
Following the historical order of
synthetic development, from molecules (Woehler, 1826), to
macromolecules (Staudinger, 1920) to supramolecules (Pedersen, Lehn,
Cram, 1970s) the next generation of molecular structures, viz.
those having nano-sized dimensions, is now within reach.
Nanostructures are currently in a focal point of attention and have
great potential in areas such as materials science and catalysis.
Their synthesis and study require the input, knowledge and experience
of scientists from different disciplines.
In this lecture our recent efforts to construct supramolecular and
nanomolecular architectures from different building blocks, including
amphiphilic biohybrids, will be discussed. The strategies that have
been followed will be outlined and the presented examples cover both
the area of advanced materials and that of catalysis.
Wednesday 12th October at 5:30pm
Le Fèvre Lecture Theatre 2
Refreshments from 5:00pm