Self-organized Hybrid Membrane Materials

Barboiu, M., Cerneaux, S., Vaughan, G. and van der Lee, A. (2004) Ion-driven ATP-pump by self-organized hybrid membrane materials. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 126, 3545-3550. 

Successive H-bond urea self-assembly of 4 and sol-gel transcription steps yield preferential conduction pathways within the hybrid membrane materials. Crystallographic, microscopic and transport data confirm the formation of self-organized molecular channels transcribed in solid dense thin-layer membranes. The ionic transport across the organized domains illustrates the power of the supramolecular approach for the design of continual hydrophilic transport devices in hybrid membrane materials by self-organization (Figure 10.8) [42-44]. 

Controlled formation of three-dimensional functional devices in silica makes the hybrid membrane materials presented here of interest for the development of a new supramolecular approach to nanoscience and nanotechnology through self-organization, towards systems of increasing behavioral and functional addressabilities (catalysis, optical and electronic applications, etc.). 

Of special interest are the concept of structure-directed function of hybrid materials and how to control their build-up from suitable units by self-organization. Toward this objective, new functional hybrid membrane materials can be anticipated that form selective patterns so as to enable efficient translocation events. This implies the search for hybrid soUd systems in which the molecular recognition-driven transport function could be ensured by a well-defined incorporation of specific receptors, covalently linked in a dense siloxane matrix. 

Figure 7-29. (a) Schematic representation of the hierarchicalgeneration of a hybrid membrane material self-organization in solution (i) and sol-gel transcription of encoded molecuUtr features into a hybrid heteropolysUoxane material (ii) (b) crystal packing of the macrocyclic superstructure. 

Mauritz, K.A. Mountz, D.A. Reuschle, D.A. Blackwell, R.I. Self-assembled organic/inorganic hybrids as membrane materials. Electrochim. Acta 2004, 50, 565 (and references therein). 

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