Self-organization in Material Science

Muthukumar, M., Ober, C. K., and Thomas, E. L. (1997). Competing interacUons and levels of ordering in self-organizing polymeric materials. Science 277, 1225-1232. 

The motivation of all scientists to employ self-assembly methods in synthetic chemistry and materials science is the biological self-organization in Nature. Biological self-organization has been defined as the spontaneous building up of complex structures that takes place under adequate environmental conditions so-... 

Via recognition-directed association and self-organization processes, supramolecular chemistry has opened new perspectives in materials science towards the design and engineering of supramolecular materials. These, again, are dynamic by nature, whereas molecular materials must be rendered dynamic by introduction of reversible covalent connections between building blocks. Because of their intrinsic ability to exchange their components, they may in principle select them in response to external stimuli or environmental factors and therefore behave as adaptive materials of either molecular or supramolecular nature [7-9]. 

The strategy of self-assembly could be applied to open up developments in molecular-based nanomaterials. We believe that the combination of ionic liquids and biomolecules, organic molecular self-assemblies and inorganic nanomaterials, can lead to new dimensions in materials science. 

Due to the availability of controlled polymerization routes for PFS monomers, well-defined architectures with organic and inorganic coblocks are available. The incorporation of PFS segments into self-organizing motifs, such as block copolymers, provides further possibilities for supramolecular chemistry and the development of functional nanomaterials.18-23 This section summarizes recent developments in the synthesis and self-assembly of PFS block copolymers, as well as their applications in material science. 

Self-organization phenomena at nanoscale in materials science are mostly observed in soft matter component or supramolecular materials [81, 82] where some forces including electrostatic, short-range van der Waals, and dipolar usually stabilize the nanostructures. Sometimes, branched structures formed in metallic nanostructured... 

Orlik, M. Self-organization in nonlinear d5mamical systems and its relation to the materials science. J. Solid State Electrochem. 13, 245 (2009)... 

Nanoreactors are nanoscale containers with the ability of selective encapsulation of guest(s). The confined microenvironment within a NR can remarkably influence the process inside. There are various kinds of NRs, including biological, self-assembled, and natural or synthetic NRs, Up to now, numerous reports have been published on the synthesis and applications of NRs, It is expected that this research field will develop even more rapidly and offer solutions to many challenging topics in material science, catalysis, biomedicine, sensors, etc. It is hoped that the concepts presented in this opening chapter provide information to fundamental concepts of NRs and their potential applications. In the following chapters, various kinds of organic NRs, as well as their potential applications, will be discussed in detail,... 

More recently, and somewhat paradoxically, the search for improved functionality to meet current needs has meant that long-since-abandoned natural products are being reconsidered as an alternative to more modern and successful synthetic materials. To be more exact, rather than reconsidering the natural products by themselves, this novel strategy involves the introduction of concepts borrowed from nature into future synthetic materials and systems. Indeed, relatively novel concepts in materials science, such as hierarchical organization, mesoscale self-assembly or stimuh-responsiveness, are common to many natural macromolecules such as proteins, nucleic acids or polysaccharides (or combinations of them). Indeed, the slow but relentless process of natural selection has produced materials that show a level of functionality significantly more exquisite than that reached by synthetic materials, with proteins being perhaps one of the best examples of this. 

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