Molecular Self-Assembly and Nanochemistry: A Chemical Strategy for the Synthesis of Nanostructures
Abstract
Molecular self-assembly is the spontaneous association of molecules under equilibrium conditions into stable, structurally well-defined aggregates joined by noncovalent bonds. Molecular self-assembly is ubiquitous in biological systems and underlies the formation of a wide variety of complex biological structures. Understanding self-assembly and the associated noncovalent interactions that connect complementary interacting molecular surfaces in biological aggregates is a central concern in structural biochemistry. Self-assembly is also emerging as a new strategy in chemical synthesis, with the potential of generating nonbiological structures with dimensions of 1 to 10^2 nanometers (with molecular weights of 10^4 to 1010 daltons). Structures in the upper part of this range of sizes are presently inaccessible through chemical synthesis, and the ability to prepare them would open a route to structures comparable in size (and perhaps complementary in function) to those that can be prepared by microlithography and other techniques of microfabrication.
- Publication:
-
Science
- Pub Date:
- November 1991
- DOI:
- 10.1126/science.1962191
- Bibcode:
- 1991Sci...254.1312W