Self-assembled Polyphiles: Molecular Nanopatterns

Self-organised materials composed of nano-sized molecular domains of well-defined architecture will be designed and synthesised. The molecular components will be chosen to force the material to adopt nanoscale complex patterns, using building blocks ranging from relatively simple "multi-functional" soap-like molecules to larger block copolymers, containing mutually immiscible components, mixed with suitable molecular liquid solvents. Particular effort will be directed to the design and manufacture of a new class of materials, called "polycontinuous" that consist of intricate nanometric interwoven molecular domains.