Strategies to create hierarchical self-assembled structures via cooperative non-covalent interactions

• Published in: Chemical Society reviews 2015-04, Vol.44 (8), p.2543-2572
• Main Authors: Rest, Christina, Kandanelli, Ramesh, Fernández, Gustavo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Ligands; Metals - chemistry; Polymers - chemistry
• ISSN: 0306-0012; 1460-4744
• DOI: 10.1039/c4cs00497c

Cooperative phenomena are common processes involved in the hierarchical self-assembly of multiple systems in nature, such as the tobacco mosaic virus and a cell's cytoskeleton. Motivated by the high degree of order exhibited by these systems, a great deal of effort has been devoted in the past two decades to design hierarchical supramolecular polymers by combining different classes of cooperative interactions. In this review, we have classified the field of supramolecular polymers depending on the cooperative non-covalent forces driving their formation, with particular emphasis on recent examples from literature. We believe that this overview would help scientists in the field to design novel self-assembled systems with improved complexity and functionalities. Cooperative phenomena exhibit the basis for the hierarchical self-assembly of multiple systems in nature. Motivated by the high degree of order in these structures, a large number of supramolecular polymers have been designed whose aggregation follows a cooperative pathway. Herein, we have classified the supramolecular systems depending on the cooperative non-covalent forces driving their formation.