Supramolecular structure chemistry, kinds

One particular asset of structured self-assemblies is their ability to create nano- to microsized domains, snch as cavities, that could be exploited for chemical synthesis and catalysis. Many kinds of organized self-assemblies have been proved to act as efficient nanoreactors, and several chapters of this book discnss some of them such as small discrete supramolecular vessels (Chapter Reactivity In Nanoscale Vessels, Supramolecular Reactivity), dendrimers (Chapter Supramolecular Dendrlmer Chemistry, Soft Matter), or protein cages and virus capsids (Chapter Viruses as Self-Assembled Templates, Self-Processes). In this chapter, we focus on larger and softer self-assembled structures such as micelles, vesicles, liquid crystals (LCs), or gels, which are made of surfactants, block copolymers, or amphiphilic peptides. In addition, only the systems that present a high kinetic lability (i.e., dynamic) of their aggregated building blocks are considered more static objects such as most of polymersomes and molecularly imprinted polymers are discussed elsewhere (Chapters Assembly of Block Copolymers and Molecularly Imprinted Polymers, Soft Matter, respectively). Finally, for each of these dynamic systems, we describe their functional properties with respect to their potential for the promotion and catalysis of molecular and biomolecu-lar transformations, polymerization, self-replication, metal colloid formation, and mineralization processes. 

Calixarenes, which are macrocyclic compounds, are one of the best building blocks to design molecular hosts in supramolecular chemistry [158]. Synthesis of calix[4]arenes, which have been adamantylated, has been reported [105, 109]. In calix[4]arenes, adamantane or its ester/carboxylic acid derivatives were introduced as substituents (Fig. 29). The purpose of this synthesis was to learn how to employ the flexible chemistry of adamantane in order to construct different kinds of molecular hosts. The X-ray structure analysis of p-(l-adamantyl)thiacalix[4]arene [109] demonstrated that it contained four CHCI3 molecules, one of which was located inside the host molecule cavity, and the host molecule assumed the cone-like conformational shape (Fig. 30). 

The aim of this book is to provide the reader with an overview of interfacial supramolecular chemistry. Supramolecular assemblies of the kind considered in this text are truly interfacial, not only because they separate solid- and solution-phase components but also because they represent the junctions where biology, chemistry, physics and engineering meet. In true interfacial supramolecular systems, individual moieties, e.g. the supporting surface and an adsorbed luminophore, interact co-operatively to produce a new function or property. In addition, these two- and three-dimensional structures remain an important step in the evolution of structure from discrete molecules, to interacting assemblies, and finally to solids. In this last chapter, the future of interfacial assemblies will be briefly considered. This discussion will focus on the possibility of integrating such assemblies into practical devices and the identification of the important scientific challenges. 

In the regions intermediate between these limiting cases, normal modes of vibration "erode" at different rates and product distributions become sensitive to the precise conditions of the experiment. Intramolecular motions in different product molecules may remain coupled by "long-range forces even as the products are already otherwise quite separated" (Remade Levine, 1996, p. 51). These circumstances make possible a kind of temporal supramolecular chemistry. Its fundamental entities are "mobile structures that exist within certain temporal, energetic and concentration limits." When subjected to perturbations, these systems exhibit restorative behavior, as do traditional molecules, but unlike those molecules there is no single reference state—a single molecular structure, for example—for these systems. What we observe instead is a series of states that recur cyclically. "Crystals have extension because unit cells combine to fill space networks of interaction that define [dissipative structures] fill time in a quite... 

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