Template-based assembly

The formation of nanostructures such as nanodot arrays has drawn a great attention due to the feasible applications in a variety of functional structures and nanodevices containing optoelectronic device, information storage, and sensing media [1-3]. The various methods such as self-assembled nanodots from solution onto substrate, strain-induced growth, and template-based methods have been proposed for the fabrication of nanodot arrays on a large area, [4-6]. However, most of these works can be applied to the small scale systems due to the limited material systems. 

Ryadnov et al. (2003) have designed a coiled coil-based nanoscale linker system dubbed Belt-and-Braces. The system was novel in a number of respects. Though based on a leucine-zipper dimer design, it was a ternary system in which one peptide (the Belt ) templated the assembly of two half-sized peptides (the Braces ) thus, the system was the first and simplest example of a coiled-coil vernier assembly (Kelly et al., 1998). The Belt-and-Braces design employed all of the key design rules for a... 

In this context, it should be mentioned that free cations in suitable solvents can be used as templates for the synthesis of macro(poly)cyclic compounds e.g. catenanes). Such template-based syntheses are mediated by slightly solvated metal cations, which assemble the reaction partners as ligands, allowing them to easily react with each other the desired product is obtained after removal of the template for a review, see reference [845]. 

The ability of a SCSC reaction to occur within a finite molecular assembly based on a linear template was first demonstrated by MacGillivray and co-workers who utilized 1,8-naphthalenedicarboxylic acid as a template to assemble trans-1-(3-pyridyl)-2-(4-pyridyl)ethylene, via O-H - -N hydrogen bonds, fora regioconotrlled [2+2] photodimerization [55]. The SCSC reaction was found to proceed, upon UV-irradiation with 420 nm light, quantitatively to give the head-to-head photoproduct rctt-l,2-bis(3-pyridyl)-3,4-bis(4-pyridyl)cyclobutane. A comparison of the single-... 

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