Applying biological principles to the assembly and selection of synthetic superstructures

It has become clear over the past two decades that, in order to create func tional synthetic nanoscale structures, the chemist must exploit a fundament al understanding of the self-assembly of large-scale biological structures, which exist and function at and beyond the nanoscale. This mode of constru ction of nanoscale structures and nanosystems represents the so-called 'bot tom-up' or 'engineering-up' approach to fabrication. Significant progress h as been made in the development of nanoscience by transferring concepts fou nd in the biological world into the chemical arena. The development of simp le chemical systems that are capable of instructing their own organisation into large aggregates of molecules through their mutual recognition propert ies has been central to this success. By utilising a diverse array of inter molecular interactions as the information source for assembly processes, ch emists have successfully applied biological concepts in the construction of complex nanoscale structures and superstructures with a variety of forms a nd functions. More recently, the utility of assembly processes has been ext ended through the realisation that recognition processes can be used to sel ect a single structure from a library of equilibrating structures. These de velopments open the way for the design and implementation of artificial ass embly processes that are capable of adapting themselves to the local enviro nment in which they are conducted.