Tailored Metal-Porphyrin Based Molecular Electrocatalysts for Enhanced Artificial Nitrogen Fixation to Green Ammonia.

Electrochemical nitrogen reduction (E-NRR) is one of the most promising approaches to generate green NH. However, scarce ammonia yields and Faradaic efficiencies () still limit their use on a large scale. Thus, efforts are focusing on different E-NRR catalyst structures and formulations.

Engineering Amino Acid and Peptide Supramolecular Architectures through Fluorination.

Fluorinated non-natural amino acids are attracting considerable research interest, especially in the biomedical field and in materials science, thanks to their ability to self-assemble into peculiar supramolecular structures. The conformational changes induced by the presence of fluorine atoms obviously affect their functions, as well as the biological activity of the deriving peptides and proteins. Here, we will briefly describe the main effects of fluorination on the aggregation behavior of such building blocks, focusing in particular on their improved tendency to form fibrils, and gels therefrom.

Acid⋅⋅⋅Amide Supramolecular Synthon for Tuning Amino Acid-Based Hydrogels' Properties.

Invited for the cover of this issue is the Laboratory of Supramolecular and Bio-Nanomaterials, coordinated by Pierangelo Metrangolo, at the Politecnico di Milano, Italy. The image depicts the co-crystal formed by N-Fmoc-pentafluorophenylalanine and benzamide, which is also involved in the formation of their mixed hydrogels. Read the full text of the article at 10.

Acid⋅⋅⋅Amide Supramolecular Synthon for Tuning Amino Acid-Based Hydrogels' Properties.

Supramolecular hydrogels formed by the self-assembly of N-Fmoc-l-phenylalanine derivatives are gaining relevance for several applications in the materials and biomedical fields. In the challenging attempt to predict or tune their properties, we selected Fmoc-pentafluorophenylalanine (1) as a model efficient gelator, and studied its self-assembly in the presence of benzamide (2), a non-gelator able to form strong hydrogen bonds with the amino acid carboxylic group. Equimolar mixtures of 1 and 2 in organic solvents afforded a 1 : 1 co-crystal thanks to the formation of an acid⋅⋅⋅amide heterodimeric supramolecular synthon.