{"id":23,"date":"2016-05-26T15:11:57","date_gmt":"2016-05-26T19:11:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.cbc.osu.edu\/badjic.1\/?page_id=23"},"modified":"2026-01-07T13:26:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T18:26:23","slug":"research","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/research.cbc.osu.edu\/badjic.1\/research\/","title":{"rendered":"Research"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"chem_title\">\n<div><strong>Key Words<\/strong>: Organic Chemistry, Supramolecular Chemistry,<\/div>\n<div>Molecular Encapsulation, Self-Assembly, Supramolecular Catalysis, Nanotechnology<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>A brief description of our research interests<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<p><br clear=\"ALL\" \/>The entrapment of molecules (guests) inside cavitands (concave hosts with an enforced cavity) allows for controlling the guest\u2019s local environment and its chemical characteristics. One can use molecular encapsulation for (a) stabilizing reactive intermediates, (b) accelerating chemical reactions, (c) modulating conformational dynamics of entrapped compounds, (d) improving the solubility of useful drugs in water and (e) promoting the crystallization of molecules. Despite many advances in this area of chemistry there are numerous challenges of which those of interest to us are described below.<\/p>\n<p>The encapsulation of a reactant\u00a0and its conversion into desired product, within supramolecular catalysts, have\u00a0limited utility and scope.\u00a0This is in contrast to biological catalysts (enzymes) capable of rapidly promoting a variety of chemical reactions at a rapid rate and stereoselectively. In this vein,\u00a0the process of stereoselective recognition\u00a0is well known yet the principles guiding it to\u00a0facilitate the\u00a0design of stereoselective hosts\/catalysts are not well understood. Biological organelles and cells manage a plethora of simultaneous chemical reactions as assisted with compartmenalization and controlled trafficking of molecules across biological membranes. The process of molecular encapsulation could play a role\u00a0in controlling the permeability of lipid membranes and additional research is needed for implementing\u00a0the concept in artificial systems. \u00a0The\u00a0encapsulation chemistry is\u00a0often\u00a0completed\u00a0in organic media yet many applications require\u00a0biologically friendly (aqueous) environments.<\/p>\n<p>Our research program focuses\u00a0on:<\/p>\n<p>(A) developing efficient methods for the preparation\u00a0of novel modular hosts \u00a0and\u00a0examining their\u00a0mechanism of action in trapping complementary guests in both organic and aqueous environments.<\/p>\n<p>(B) examining the assembly of cup-shaped hosts in water and understanding the functional behavior of such hierarchical materials.<\/p>\n<p>In particular, we are interested in using molecular baskets (designed in our laboratory with\u00a0methods of computational chemistry)\u00a0for building\u00a0functional materials capable of\u00a0rapidly\u00a0removing\u00a0nerve agents from harsh environments. Additionally, our interests center on\u00a0mimicking the action of monooxygenases (or even using these enzymes) for promoting the oxidation of small hydrocarbons.<\/p>\n<p>If you are interested in joining our group,\u00a0as a\u00a0graduate student or postdoc, please contact prof. Badjic at badjic.1@osu.edu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Words: Organic Chemistry, Supramolecular Chemistry, Molecular Encapsulation, Self-Assembly, Supramolecular Catalysis, Nanotechnology A brief description of our research interests: The entrapment of molecules (guests) inside cavitands (concave hosts with an enforced cavity) allows for controlling the guest\u2019s local environment and its chemical characteristics. One can use molecular encapsulation for (a) stabilizing reactive intermediates, (b) accelerating <a href=\"https:\/\/research.cbc.osu.edu\/badjic.1\/research\/\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"sr-only\">Read more about Research<\/span>[&hellip;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-23","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.cbc.osu.edu\/badjic.1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.cbc.osu.edu\/badjic.1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.cbc.osu.edu\/badjic.1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.cbc.osu.edu\/badjic.1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.cbc.osu.edu\/badjic.1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/research.cbc.osu.edu\/badjic.1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":522,"href":"https:\/\/research.cbc.osu.edu\/badjic.1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23\/revisions\/522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.cbc.osu.edu\/badjic.1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}