William Dichtel

Northwestern University

Robert L. Letsinger Professor of Chemistry

Bio – Will was born in Houston, Texas, but spent most of his impressionable years growing up in Roanoke, Virginia. He was an undergraduate student at MIT, then earned his PhD at UC-Berkeley under the supervision of Prof. Jean M. J. Fréchet. He next moved to Los Angeles for a joint postdoctoral appointment with Prof. Fraser Stoddart, then at UCLA, and Prof. Jim Heath, then at Caltech. Prof. Dichtel began his independent career in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Cornell University in 2008 and moved to Northwestern University in the summer of 2016 as the Robert L. Letsinger Professor of Chemistry.

Abstract Title: Synthesis Supramolecular Polymerization of Nanotubes Based on Protonation-Induced Assembly of Macrocycles

Abstract Body: Macrocycles that assemble into nanotubes exhibit emergent properties stemming from their low dimensionality, structural regularity, and distinct interior environments. I will present report a versatile strategy to synthesize diverse nanotube structures in a single, efficient reaction by using a conserved building block bearing a pyridine ring. Imine condensation of a 2,4,6 triphenylpyridine-based diamine with various aromatic dialdehydes yields chemically distinct pentagonal [5+5], hexagonal [3+3], and diamond-shaped [2+2] macrocycles depending on the substitution pattern of the aromatic dialdehyde monomer. Modifying these macrocycles to achieve emergent mechanical and transport properties will also be discussed.