This talk presents a novel and emerging concept of generating new chemicals, intermediates and materials in a 'Biorefinery'. Our continuous efforts in this area have led us to develop new amphiphiles and surfactants from industrial by-products, which upon self-assembly produced nanoarchitectures including lipid nanotubes, twisted/helical nanofibers, low-molecular-weight gels and liquid crystals. We have used such soft materials as nanocontainers for encapsulating bioactives/nutraceuticals and pheromones. Importantly, an enzyme-triggered drug-delivery model for hydrophobic drugs (bioactives) was demonstrated by using these hierarchically assembled hydrogels. Intriguingly, by combining biocatalysis, with principles of green and supramolecular chemistry, we have developed building blocks-to-assembled materials. Also addresses the advances that have led to the understanding of chiral behaviour and the subsequent ability to control the structure of glycolipid nanostructures and gels, and the resulting impact of this on future material applications. These results will lead to efficient molecular design of supramolecular architectures and soft nanomaterials from underutilized plant/crop-based renewable feedstock for targeted applications.

Nano/microencapsulation of bioactives using self-assembled   soft materials from biobased surfactants

243rd National Meeting (2012)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.