Macromolecular building blocks

CEPs have emerged as one of the champions in intelligent material research. They have all the desirable properties they are readily engineered at the molecular level to recognize specific stimuli they facilitate transport of electrical information as they are conductive and they are capable of localized processing as well as actuation of response mechanisms. A wide range of CEPs are available (Table 1.1). 

CEPs have a further unique and practical advantage. The fact that they conduct electricity means that we can communicate with them using electronic tools (computers and interfaces) that have become part of our scientific lives. Information on the behavior of these systems can be retrieved from real in situ environments using existing and emerging characterization tools (described later). In addition, their behavior can be manipulated in situ using appropriate electrical stimuli (Table 1.2). 

In the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute (IPRI), the unique features of CEPs were identified based on pyrrole, aniline, and thiophene. Stimuli-recognition sites can be incorporated into these CEPs, for which information-processing capabilities are inherent, and various response mechanisms can be integrated into them. 

There is no doubt that conducting polymers are a class of materials destined to play a major role in intelligent material science. As outlined in the remainder of this text, the properties of these materials are versatile and possess the dynamism required for intelligent behavior. 

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Uniform size polymers possessing deliberately designed functional end groups are drawing increasing attention as important macromolecular building blocks for the efficient construction of highly controlled macromolecular, and supramolecular structures.1... 

Nanocomposites based on polymers and nanoparticles (NPs) are diverse and versatile functional materials, with applications ranging from electronic device fabrication to biosensors and catalysis [1-7]. The controllable polymer chain length, tunable NP size and core materials, and various side-chain and ligand functionahzation enable these macromolecular building blocks... 

Chiral Architectures from Macromolecular Building Blocks... 

Inclusion complexation has developed to becoming another widely exploited supramolecular interaction for the formation of supramolecular polymer networks, mostly in water [197, 198]. Several classes of macrocycles have been developed, including crown ethers [199, 200], porphyrins [201, 202], cyclophanes [203], catenanes [204], cavitands [205, 206], cryptophanes [207], calix[n]arenes [208], and carcerands [209]. Macrocyclic-based supramolecular gels can either be formed from low molecular weight precursors or from macromolecular building blocks. The following discussion focuses on the latter. 

Whilst it is often desirable to prepare macromolecules with a low polydispersity and high molecular weights, it is also sometimes necessary to generate well-defined polymeric materials in the ohgomeric range (An example is the provision of modular macromolecular building blocks for the preparation of bmsh-Hke structures). The... 

Controlling the organization of macromolecular building blocks on the secondary stracture level paves the way to generate more complex stmctures, which might lead to hierarchical materials. The previous section discussed recent examples of... 

The second classification has been recently used in a later review article by Meijer and co-workers. This classification is mainly concerned with the mechanism of supramoiecuiar polymerization, which has been defined as the evolution of Gibbs free energy as a function of monomer conversion to polymer (p) from zero to one (p = 0 1) as the concentration, temperature, or some other environmental parameter is altered. This classification has been extremely effective in describing the vast array of examples of SPs, correlating mechanistic similarities with their covalent counterparts, which are widely understood to be classified mechanistically. In this scheme, the authors clearly identify the most fundamental difference between covalent and SPs as the difference in kinetic versus thermodynamic control. The authors argue that it is from this dramatic difference between covalent polymers and SPs, due to the reversibility of the noncovalent interactions, that SPs derive their special properties. This review did not include, however, SPs made from large macromolecular building blocks. 

Solution self-assembly Lutz JF of tailor-made macromolecular building blocks prepared by controlled radical polymerization techniques... 

Soler-Illia, GJ. and Azzaroni, O. (2011) Multifunctional hybrids by combining ordered mesoporous materials and macromolecular building blocks. Chem. Soc. Rev., 40 (2), 1107-1150. 

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