Nanostructuring of solids with amphiphilic polymers

Amphiphilic block copolymers are versatile structure-directing agents for t he synthesis of organic nanostructured materials. Chemically well character ized and easily accessible, they can be utilized for a rich variety of appl ications. While the prefabrication of an ABC "nanoreactor" or a mesoscopic casting mold occur via spontaneous self-assembly (exo- and endo-templating) , during biomimetic mineralization the structure of the resulting inorganic -ABC hybrid material is induced upon combining the components. The underlyi ng methodologies are illustrated using recently published, representative e xamples.