Supramolecular structures self-assembly

Perahia, D., R. Traiphol, and U.H.F. Bunz. 2001. From molecules to supramolecular structure Self assembling of wirelike poly(p-phenyleneethynylene)s. Macromolecules 34 151. 

Supramolecular structures self-assembled from organic molecules often provide finely tuned structures. Transcription of these structures into mechanically stable inorganic substances should be a productive approach for the preparation of novel functional materials. This concept is sometimes known as structure transcription. Transcription of fibrous and tubular structures of organic gels into inorganic substances have has been extensively reported by... 

In this chapter, we will emphasize aspects of supramolecular self-assembly of metal xanthates, in particular for series of closely related structures. Self-assembly is a feature frequently observed in numerous xanthato complexes of soft metals, but this feature has often been ignored in the primary literature. 

Figure 3 shows some simple chelators and their comparable monodentate reference ligands. The ligands chosen are the simple mono- and bidentate amines often used in supramolecular and self-assembled structures, especially the pyridine derivatives. 

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. 

Due to its unique chemical composition and structure, DNA can interact with a plethora of chemical structures via numerous types of bonds. This property ultimately defines the ability of DNA fragments to serve as the building blocks in the complex three-dimensional self-assembled structures. Following we Ust four major types of polymer/DNA interactions that can lead to formation of supramolecular structures ... 

A unique feature of such DNA-directed self-assemblies is their site-selective immobilization, which makes it possible to construct well-defined nanostructures. On the other hand, the possibility of the introduction of a vast number of substitutes (like peptidic sequences, nucleoproteins, of hydrophobic hydrocarbon chains) to an adamantane core (adamantyl) makes such a process capable of designing steric colloidal and supramolecular conformations by setting hydrophobic/hydrophilic and other interactions. In addition, the rigidity of the adamantane structure can provide strength and rigidity to such self-assemblies [150]. 

The use of ordered supramolecular assemblies, such as micelles, monolayers, vesicles, inverted micelles, and lyotropic liquid crystalline systems, allows for the controlled nucleation of inorganic materials on molecular templates with well-defined structure and surface chemistry. Poly(propyleneimine) dendrimers modified with long aliphatic chains are a new class of amphiphiles which display a variety of aggregation states due to their conformational flexibility [38]. In the presence of octadecylamine, poly(propyleneimine) dendrimers modified with long alkyl chains self-assemble to form remarkably rigid and well-defined aggregates. When the aggregate dispersion was injected into a supersaturated... 

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