ERROR 1
ERROR 1
ERROR 2
ERROR 2
ERROR 2
ERROR 2
ERROR 2
Password and Confirm password must match.
If you have an ACS member number, please enter it here so we can link this account to your membership. (optional)
ERROR 2
ACS values your privacy. By submitting your information, you are gaining access to C&EN and subscribing to our weekly newsletter. We use the information you provide to make your reading experience better, and we will never sell your data to third party members.
By incorporating a bonding weakness into an organic framework compound, researchers in India have devised a simple procedure for making two-dimensional materials that can be used to make membranes with antimicrobial properties (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2016, DOI: 10.1021/jacs.5b13533). Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are porous 3-D networks constructed of strong covalent bonds between light elements such as carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. Researchers have tried delaminating COFs to make 2-D analogs, expecting that they would lead to novel applications in gas separation, electronics, and other areas. But those efforts have largely been thwarted because of strong π-π stacking interactions between adjacent layers. So Shouvik Mitra and Rahul Banerjee of the National Chemical Laboratory, in Pune, and coworkers made self-exfoliating materials based on guanidinium halides. They explain that repulsions between loosely bound chloride or other halide ions and between positively charged guanidinium units weaken π-π interactions, causing the material to spontaneously form micrometer-sized 2-D flakes. Tests of the material in flake form and embedded in polysulfone films show that it exhibits potent antimicrobial properties. The team speculates that cell death is triggered by the material’s positively charged moieties disrupting the negatively charged phospholipid bilayer in cell membranes.
Join the conversation
Contact the reporter
Submit a Letter to the Editor for publication
Engage with us on Twitter