The concept of strongly interacting groups in self-assembly of soft matter

. Amphiphilic molecules in solution typically produce structures coming from cooperative interactions of many synergetically acting functional units. If all essential interactions are weak, the structure can be treated theoretically based on a free energy expansion for small interaction parameters....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The European physical journal. E, Soft matter and biological physics Soft matter and biological physics, 2018-09, Vol.41 (9), p.103-27, Article 103
Main Authors: Nyrkova, I. A., Semenov, A. N.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Assembling
Biological and Medical Physics
Biophysics
Chemical Sciences
Chirality
Colloquium
Complex Fluids and Microfluidics
Complex Systems
Condensed Matter
Condensed matter physics
Free energy
Interaction models
Interaction parameters
Mathematical morphology
Membranes
Nanotechnology
Nanowires
or physical chemistry
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
Polymer Sciences
Polymers
Self-assembly
Soft and Granular Matter
Soft Condensed Matter
Surfaces and Interfaces
Theoretical and
Thin Films
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Summary:. Amphiphilic molecules in solution typically produce structures coming from cooperative interactions of many synergetically acting functional units. If all essential interactions are weak, the structure can be treated theoretically based on a free energy expansion for small interaction parameters. However, most self-assembling soft matter systems involve strong specific interactions of functional units leading to qualitatively new structures of highly soluble micellar or fibrillar aggregates. Here we focus on the systems with the so-called strongly interacting groups (SIGs) incorporated into unimer molecules and discuss the effects of packing frustrations and unimer chirality as well as the origins of spontaneous morphological chirality in the case of achiral unimers. We describe several theoretical approaches (overcoming the limitations of weak interaction models) including the concepts of super-strong segregation, geometrical mismatch and orientational frustration. We also review some recently developed phenomenological theories of surfactant membranes and multiscale hierarchical approaches based on all-atomic modeling of packing structures of amphiphilic molecules with SIGs. In particular, we discuss self-assembling structures in systems possessing simultaneously several distinct types of SIGs: solutions of beta-sheet oligopeptides (showing different fibrillar morphologies), aromatic diamide-ester molecules (forming membranes, helical ribbons and tubules), and triarylamine amide derivatives (producing light-controlled supramolecular nanowires). Graphical abstract
ISSN:1292-8941
1292-895X
DOI:10.1140/epje/i2018-11699-2