Inorganic building blocks

Polymers are found in the organic natural world as the building blocks for life itself. They are also found as inorganic building blocks that allow construction of homes, skyscrapers, and roads. Synthetic polymers serve as basic building blocks of society now and in the future. This text includes all three of these critical segments of polymeric materials. 

Mirkin CA. Programming the assembly of two and three-dimensional architectures with DNA and nanoscale inorganic building blocks. Inorg Chem 2000 39 2258-72. 

Polyoxometalates can be versatile inorganic building blocks for construction of molecular-based materials. The use of polyoxometalates, in combination with inorganic or organic components has been realized in the construction of molecule-hased materials. Prominent examples of inorganic materials can he found in the work by Muller on giant molybdates.We have been interested in materials comprised of lanthanide polyoxoanion building blocks. We report herein our efforts in the studies of lanthanide complexes of [a-... 

Kickelbick, G. 2003. Concepts for the incorporation of inorganic building blocks into organic polymers on a nanoscale. Progress in Polymer Science 28 83-114. 

If the carbon atoms are formally replaced by other, e.g. inorganic, building blocks, it is possible to construct nanotubes from these materials. Many inorganic layered materials exhibit a hexagonal structure in their bulk phases as well. An example is molybdenum disulfide, where one carbon atom per unit cell is replaced by a molybdenum atom and every second... 

Kickelbick, G., Concepts for the Incorporation of Inorganic Building Blocks into Organic Polymers on a Nanoscale. Prog. Polym. Sci. 2003, 28, 83-114. Okumura, H. Okada, M. Kawaguchi, Y. Harada, A., Complex Formation Between Poly(dimethylsiloxane) and Cyclodextrins New Pseudo-Polyrotaxanes Containing Inorganic Polymers. Macromolecules 2000, 33,4297-4298. 

Vesicles can also be composed of inorganic building blocks. A recent report shows that polyoxometallates can form stable vesicles in a mixture of water and acetone." In this case, vesicles assembled from a hybrid of two anionic polyoxometallate clusters linked by a bifunctional organic hgand in the presence of tetra-n-butylammonium counterion. 

---