W0039

Design Strategies for Lamellar Materials, or "What I've Engineered for You Lately". Alicia M. Beatty, Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556

One of the challenges in the supramolecular assembly of solid materials is to find reliable building materials – molecules or ions that will interact in a predictable, consistent manner. In this case, we have assembled lamellar materials from 3,5 pyrazole dicarboxylic acid (H₂PzA) by linking parallel sheets of the HPzA monoanion via hydrogen bonds. This lamellar assembly can accommodate substituents and/or guest species of a variety of shapes and sizes (and with a potential for a variety of weak interactions, e.g. pi-pi, Cl-Cl) between the layers.

Can we translate the design principles of an organic lamellar construction to an inorganic/organic hybrid material? If so, we will be able to design and synthesize lamellar inorganic/organic hybrid materials with removable guests and/or labile ligands for catalysis.