Design of self-assembling materials

摘要: Self-assembly is the process by which a substance, exclusively driven by noncovalent interactions, spontaneously develops into a particular long-lived conformation with a well-defined structure. Such structures may be highly inhomogeneous but still exceedingly differ from random amorphous materials which are typically dynamically arrested. In fact, by having an easily accessible ground state, selfassembling materials have the property of forming structures characterised by few defects, and they often can adapt to changes in the environment. Self-assembly is the method that most biological systems use to control the synthesis of complex structures. If properly understood, the fundamental principles used by all living organisms can be applied to design artificial materials with novel properties, such as active response to the environment, catalytic properties or precise three-dimensional connectivity which could …