1450 - 1530 Christopher A Hunter

Fundamentals of Molecular Recognition 

Molecular recognition events are affected by many different factors that have hampered the development of an understanding of intermolecular interactions at a quantitative level. To progress, we need to develop an integrated quantitative appreciation of the relative magnitudes of all of the different effects that might influence the behaviour of a given system. Non-covalent interactions are sensitive to solvent, orientation and substituents, so to experimentally probe the basic chemistry that governs weak intermolecular interactions, we require systems where these parameters can be independently varied. Synthetic supramolecular systems provide the ideal solution for developing structure-activity relationships for understanding intermolecular interactions. This presentation will describe approaches to quantifying non-covalent interactions and the development a quantitative generic approach to molecular recognition in solids, organic and aqueous solutions.