Dominic V Mcgrath
Publications
Abstract:
An amphiphilic compound containing a benzyl-15-crown-5 focal point, azobenzene spacer, and a dodecyl tail as a peripheral group has been investigated at the air-water interface. X-ray reflectivity and grazing incident diffraction (XGID) were performed on the Langmuir monolayers to elucidate molecular packing and orientation of molecular fragments for the compound with mismatch between cross-sectional areas of hydrophobic and hydrophilic segments. At high surface pressure, we observed intralayer packing of the alkyl tails with doubling parameters of the conventional orthorhombic unit cell (supercell) and long-range positional ordering. High tilt of the alkyl tails of 58° from the surface normal was a signature of molecular packing caused by a large mismatch between the cross-sectional areas of the polar head (45 Å2) and the alkyl tail (20 Å2).
Abstract:
The synthesis and characterization of thermally labile dendronized linear AB step-polymers is described. First through third generation dendritic AB monomers 14a-c containing both a furan and furan-protected maleimide functionality were prepared by the Cu(I)-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition reaction followed by polymerization via the thermally reversible furan-maleimide Diels-Alder reaction. The assembly, disassembly, and reassembly behavior of linear dendronized step-polymers 16a-c was studied by GPC. © 2011 American Chemical Society.
Abstract:
Two dendrimer cores, 1a and 2a, that contain o-nitrobenzyl photolabile moieties, lack hydrolytically sensitive ester linkages and possess three and six sites for dendron attachment, respectively, have been alkylated to provide methylated core analogs 1b and 2b as well as second-generation benzylaryl ether dendrimer 1c and third-generation dendrimer 2c. These dendrimers undergo clean photocleavage as indicated by the evolution of isosbestic points in the UV spectra during photolysis. In addition, the nature of the photodegradation products was confirmed by observing the photolyses by both 1H NMR and GPC. © The Royal Society of Chemistry and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.