Output details
13 - Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Metallurgy and Materials
University of Sheffield : B - Materials Science and Engineering
Predicting the Structure of Supramolecular Dendrimers via the Analysis of Libraries of AB(3) and Constitutional Isomeric AB(2) Biphenylpropyl Ether Self-Assembling Dendrons
Synthesis and structural analysis of several new libraries of dendrons are reported. The supramolecular objects self-assembled from such dendrons are much larger than any previous, among them a giant vesicular sphere assembled from 770 dendrons having ultrahigh molar mass of 1.73×10^6 g/mol. These nano-objects permitted for the first time discrimination of various molecular mechanisms of spherical self-assembly. The vesicular phase is the first in any thermotropic liquid crystal system and has potential applications in e.g. drug delivery and catalysis. The work contributed to winning an eight-institution international collaboration project supported under NSF-EPSRC Pire scheme (UK part EP/K034308).