April 7 - 11, 2025
Seattle, Washington
Symposium Supporters
2025 MRS Spring Meeting & Exhibit
SB04.03.01

Bio-Inspired Supramolecular Design of Materials for Energy and Advanced Medicine

When and Where

Apr 8, 2025
10:30am - 11:00am
Summit, Level 3, Room 324

Presenter(s)

Co-Author(s)

Samuel Stupp1

Northwestern University1

Abstract

Samuel Stupp1

Northwestern University1
The living world utilizes supramolecular materials in which molecules self-assemble through highly specific noncovalent connections programmed by their structures. Yet, this powerful strategy is a newcomer in materials science that along with current computational advances could create novel functional soft matter. Our laboratory has focused over the past few decades on this journey, aiming to exploit bio-inspired supramolecular engineering as a tool to design materials. The lecture will discuss three examples of functional supramolecular materials that address critical needs for humans and the planet. The first is inspired by the photosynthetic machinery of green plants, creating materials that harvest light to produce hydrogen peroxide as a potential liquid fuel for renewable energy. The second example will report on a recent breakthrough on supramolecular ferroelectrics that combine chemistry inspired by proteins and plastics to generate materials that could function to store information or energy depending on the peptide sequences used. The third topic will be supramolecular biomaterials that mimic extracellular matrices and provide unprecedented bioactivity to regenerate brain tissues. The lecture will demonstrate how the tuning of the unique dynamic behavior of supramolecular materials is behind their remarkable potential.

Keywords

polymer

Symposium Organizers

Fabrizio Gelain, ASST Grande Ospedale Metropolitano Niguarda
Tiffany Walsh, Deakin University
Chun-Long Chen, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Nathaniel Rosi, University of Pittsburgh

Session Chairs

Chun-Long Chen
Nathaniel Rosi

In this Session