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Organic Chemistry - Driving Diverse Scientific Advancements

Organic chemistry focuses on carbon-containing compounds and their composition, structure, properties, and reactions. Exploring organic substances at the molecular level, it examines how carbon interacts with elements such as nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, and sulfur. Such compounds form covalent bonds, with electrons shared among elements that make up the molecules at the last energy level of the atom.

By contrast, inorganic chemistry is restricted to those compounds that do not contain carbon (and therefore are also not living). Their bonds are created synthetically through electrostatic interactions and are excellent electricity and heat conductors.

Organic compounds are diverse, spanning 50 million types and encompassing both natural compounds, which are rooted in living beings and the waste they produce, and synthetic compounds created in a lab. The four major types of compounds residing in living beings are proteins, carbohydrates, lipids (fats), and nucleic acids (the basis of DNA). In a majority of cases, the carbon contained in these molecules is bonded with hydrogen as one of the elements.

Organic chemistry has vital role in leading-edge scientific research. For example, in searching for extraterrestrial life on different planets, researchers are looking at the stability of various organic compounds in atmospheres radically different than Earth’s, which relies on dihydrogen monoxide (H2O) as a life-enabling solvent. Research indicates that concentrated sulfuric acid (H2SO4), which exists on Venus, can also support reactions fundamental to organic chemistry. At the same time, Venusian clouds form at an altitude where the air pressure would allow nucleic acid base stability. Nucleic acids, foundational to animal and plant DNA, encompass cytosine, guanine, adenosine, thymine, and uracil.

The recent study, published in Astrobiology, exposed 20 amino acids to sulfuric acid at a concentration typical on Venus. Levels of reactivity were measured, with the results indicating that the chemical reactions might lead to life forming. One major limitation of the study was that it was carried out in a lab environment, which lacks the trace elements of CO2 and other gasses found in the Venusian atmosphere, as well as the constant bombardment by meteors that often contain amino acids in large concentrations.

Another avenue of organic chemistry research focuses on creating touchless technologies that will drive computer interfaces that do not need to be physically touched to function. With the pandemic and possible transmission of disease through touching shared devices a major concern, researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia are focusing on creating supramolecular structures, or crystalline cages, able to absorb water.

Current touchless sensors rely on physical stimuli ranging from ultrasound to infrared radiation. The new approach focuses on chemistry, with chemical cages created in the lab combining moisture-sensitive elements such as carboxylic groups on the external surface and protonated amines in the cavity’s interior. With human skin constantly releasing moisture, the moisture craving molecules in the sensors are extremely efficient in capturing this humidity change.

Benefits of this approach include lessening a reliance on gestures or proximity in enabling touchless interfaces. In addition, touchless technologies could be applied to various surfaces beyond traditional screens, such as any porous material able to uptake water “with high adsorption and desorption kinetics.” This opens to the door to covalent–organic frameworks (COFs) and metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), which are not currently in use for touchless applications.

One research team deliverable was a basic touchless screen and a touchless ‘password manager’ device. The latter mimics smartphones’ patterned screen locks and incorporates 25 humidity sensors that are responsive to finger proximity. This not only boosts safety by not needing to be touched, but it is also highly scalable, as both the potential materials and the fabrication processes are inexpensive.