Abstract
In biological systems, molecular recognition events occur mostly withininterfacial environments such as at membrane surfaces, enzyme reaction sites, or at theinterior of the DNA double helix. Investigation of molecular recognition at model interfacesprovides great insights into biological phenomena. Molecular recognition at interfaces notonly has relevance to biological systems but is also important for modern applications suchas high sensitivity sensors. Selective binding of guest molecules in solution to hostmolecules located at solid surfaces is crucial for electronic or photonic detection of analytesubstances. In response to these demands, molecular recognition at interfaces has beeninvestigated extensively during the past two decades using Langmuir monolayers, self-assembled monolayers, and lipid assemblies as recognition media. In this review, advancesof molecular recognition at interfaces are briefly summarized.
Highlights
Molecular recognition is one of the most important chemical events in biological systems and has been mimicked in supramolecular chemistry as, for example, artificial enzymes [1,2,3]
Most of the supramolecular systems for molecular recognition are composed of molecularly dispersed states in homogeneous solutions
Binding constants of adenosine monophosphate (AMP) to guanidinium functionality in aqueous aggregates such as micelle or bilayer vesicles were evaluated at 102-104 M-1
Summary
Molecular recognition is one of the most important chemical events in biological systems and has been mimicked in supramolecular chemistry as, for example, artificial enzymes [1,2,3]. Binding constants of adenosine monophosphate (AMP) to guanidinium functionality in aqueous aggregates such as micelle or bilayer vesicles were evaluated at 102-104 M-1 These values are significantly larger than those between molecularly-dispersed guanidinium and phosphate in water (1.4 M-1) [5]. A large enhancement in binding constant was reported for binding of AMP to guanidinium groups when embedded at a water surface [6] These results clearly indicate that molecular recognition can be achieved much more efficiently at an appropriate interface. The binding constant increases significantly at the border between lipid and aqueous phases These quantum chemical calculations suggested advantageous aspects of interfacial environments for efficient molecular recognition of substances in aqueous media. Advances of molecular recognition at interfaces are briefly summarized
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