“Organic synthesis”, seems like a mysterious area to many people outside of a chemistry degree. In many amateurs’ eyes, in an organic chemistry lab, some “wizards” are using “magic power” to create incredible things. However, organic chemistry is very “touchable”, not only many things that we are using are synthesized by chemists, but also some chemists in labs are synthesizing funny things which can add fun to our life.
In April 2003, an article published by Dr. James Tour at Rice University described the procedure of synthesis a “NanoKid”, as well as “NanoProfessionals” based on the NanoKid.
Synthesis and Modifications of the NanoKid
A NanoKid is formed of two parts: an upper body and a lower body. The upper and lower bodies were synthesized in the first several steps, and the last step involved the coupling of the top and bottom portions. This was accomplished by using a Pd/Cu-catalyst through a Sonogashira Reaction.
Synthesis of a NanoKid (Copyright: The Journal of Organic Chemistry)
After Dr. Tour’s team synthesized the NanoKid successfully, he changed the “head” of the NanoKid to make NanoProfessionals, such as NanoChef, NanoAthlete and NanoScholar. Furthermore, by hydrogenating the triple bond on the “waist” to a single bond, and coupling the “hand” of NanoKids, the research team got NanoBalletDancers and NanoKid-Polymer respectively.
Electron cloud-based space-filling model of NanoProfessionals (Copyright: James M. Tour)
Other relevant synthesis projects
Other than NanoKids, the research group of Dr. Tour constructed NanoCars by carbon-based molecules and won the first prize in the NanoCar Race in 2017.
Three models of possible conformations of NanoCars under the scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) (Copyright: Organic Letters)
Summary of the NanoCar Race results. (Copyright: Nature)
Recently, many organic chemists use carbon atoms as building blocks to build molecules with unusual names. Such as “Broken Windowpane” which has a molecular formula of C8H12 and looks like a broken window, “Housane” which looks like a house and “Churchane” which looks like a church.
Is it a waste of taxpayers’ money?
Chemists have already synthesized the NanoKid, NanoCar and Broken Windowpane, and in the future, chemists might build more interesting Nano-things. These research outcomes are very delighted, but some people might ask: Is it a waste of money? What is the meaning of these chemicals?
To synthesize a Broken Windowpane, chemists need to overcome an extraordinary intramolecular tension, to give birth to a NanoKid, researchers had to design and control the reaction accurately. “Beyond the molecular-sized domain, there is no conceivable entity upon which to tailor architectures that could have programmed cohesive interactions between the individual building blocks. It is at this size region that synthetic chemists have been inherently captivated; however, their fascination is rarely shared by the layperson.” Dr. Tour said. The Broken Windowpane might be adapted for more fantastic molecules, and the NanoCar might be used to deliver targeted drugs to a certain part of the body one day in the future. These molecules show that chemists can make whatever they want, and how magic chemistry is.
