Supramolecular Assembly of Dendritic Polyions Into Responsive Nanostructures

摘要

Nanotechnology revolves around the creation of functional materials at the molecular scale. Both top-down and bottom-up approaches have been developed during the last few decades to design nanomaterials for a wide range of applications. Due to the limitations of the top-down methods in reaching nanoscale, bottom-up approaches have enjoyed more attention. Consequently, growing attention has been devoted to the concept of self-assembly as an effective tool for designing well-ordered structures from their basic building blocks. Self-assembly uses different molecular interactions such as electrostatic, hydrogen bonding, hydrophobic, p-p stacking, van der Waals, and coulomb forces to design the materials of interest with desired lengths, shapes and functions. The bourgeoning field of nanotechnology demands more advance materials with more precise structures and functions. This has motivated scientists to advance the concept of self-assembly in two direction: First, to propose new approaches in self-assembly of nano- and microstructures towards faster, more precise and cost-effective methods; and second, to design self-assembled systems with dynamic nature and responsiveness to external stimuli which are pivotal to the construction of the so called "smart" materials.;In addition to the need for the development of new methods for the construction of smart nanostructures, judicious choice of molecular tiles is also very important. Dendritic polymers are unique and known for their wide range of applications especially as unimolecular micelles due to the availability of multiple charges, presence of cavity and lack of CMC limitations compared to micellar and vesicular systems. However, their role as an effective building block in designing self-assembled systems require more investigations.;This dissertation will focus on the application of dendrimers in both development of novel supramolecular assembly methods to design hierarchical and stimuli responsive nanostructures; It also aims to further the understanding of unique ion mediated self-assembly of macroions by exploring their universal nature and to describe them numerically.