Scientists have proposed a new concept of ordered-assembly reaction (OAR), which combined quantum-confined superfluid (QSF) concept with frontier molecular orbital (FMO) theory.  

The work was published in Adv. Mater. Interfaces. 

Most recently, a research team led by Prof. JIANG Lei and Dr. ZHANG Xiqi from Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences proposed a new concept of OAR to understand the intrinsic mechanism of high-performance 1D nanoconfined chemical reactions. 

Previously, 1D nanoconfined chemical reactions exhibit improved performance, which is ascribed to the nanoconfinement. However, the intrinsic mechanism of this nanoconfinement-enhanced performance remains unclear, and becomes a challenging problem to be solved. 

In this work, the perspectives on 1D nanoconfined chemical reactions including organic syntheses and polymerization are provided, followed by the 1D nanoconfined preassembled reactions. Then, the QSF concept is introduced, which represents an enthalpy-driven confined ordered fluid.  

Inspired by the programmed-assembly reaction in living organisms, a new concept of OAR is proposed, which refers to such a reaction process that reactant molecules quickly pass through nanochannels in a directional flow with certain order and molecular configuration.  

The OAR concept will not only shed light on the intrinsic mechanism of nanoconfinement-enhanced performance, but also promote the development of nanoconfined chemical reactions. 

This work is supported by the National Key R&D program of China, the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the 111 Project.