Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
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CHAPTER 8
Molecular Gels as Templates for
Nanostructured Materials
TANMOY KAR AND PRASANTA KUMAR DAS*
Department of Biological Chemistry, Indian Association for the Cultivation
of Science, Jadavpur, Kolkata - 700 032, India
*Email: bcpkd@iacs.res.in
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8.1 Introduction
The self-assembly of organic building blocks can create a wide variety of
supramolecular arrangements having diversity in their morphology and func-
tion as found in many natural and synthetic systems.
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In these self-assembled
structures, the organic molecules are held together by a combination of weak
forces, such as hydrogen bonding, p-p stacking and van der Waals interactions,
etc.
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Over the last decade, researchers from various fields of chemistry have
been trying to develop novel methods through which the shape and size of
nanostructured materials can be controlled at the micro- or even nanoscopic
level. In this regard, the use of self-assembled systems has received immense
attention as templates for the generation of anisotropic nanostructures and
composite materials.
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The term template can be defined as the pattern or
structure that can be used to reproduce another material with a complementary
shape/size and architecture. In supramolecular chemistry, templates are gen-
erally used as a driving force for bringing together molecular components.
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Such components afterwards react among themselves and go on to form
products in which the template molecule can remain intertwined or from which
the template can be easily removed. The use of templates in supramolecular
chemistry has been found to be useful for developing new receptor molecules,
