For the latter half of the 'Solid State 20th Century' materials science has been the engine that propelled technology. As we enter the 'Materials 21st Century' it is abundantly clear that the insatiable demand for new materials for emerging technologies is driving materials synthesis and change. Materials chemistry will play a central role in this endeavor through the creation of materials with structures and properties able to meet the demands required by up-and-coming technologies. In this paper a far-sighted and innovative materials chemistry strategy is proposed. It takes solid state chemistry beyond fifty years of thermodynamic phases and microscale structures, to a new era of self-assembly chemistry focused on metastable phases and mesoscale structures, with accessible surfaces and well defined interfaces that determine function and utility. It is an interdisciplinary approach that combines synthesis, solid state architecture and functional hierarchy to create an innovative strategy for materials chemistry in the new millennium. The attractive feature of the approach is the ability to assemble complex structures rationally from modular components and integrate them into self-assembling constructions for a range of perceived applications. By creating a series of purposeful design strategies it is believed that truly revolutionary advances in materials science and technology can result from this approach.
Room at the top and bottomNot so long ago in materials chemistry it seemed that there was only 'room at the bottom'. 1 The trend was to synthesize and organize nanoscopic materials. As we enter the new millennium it is becoming abundantly clear that there is also 'room at the top'. 2 What has changed and why is this important? In this brief essay I will make the case that the paradigmatic shift comes from the realization that self-assembly, templating, patterning, capping, layering and molding methods have expanded the materials chemists tool box to include synthesis and organization of materials at 'all' length scales. Hierarchy has been introduced into materials chemistry and purely synthetic integrated chemical systems that are designed to achieve a particular function are becoming a reality. This augurs well for the development of materials, composites and systems with novel properties, new functions and perceived value in a range of applications in the biomedical, pharmaceutical, aerospace, automotive, construction, energy, electronics and photonics user sectors.
Self-assembling materialsThis story is about interfaces between organics and inorganics and how they can be controlled synthetically at the molecular level to produce composite materials in which structure is prescribed from angstrom to centimeter length scales. The construction kit consists of complementary organics and inorganics that spontaneously assemble through lock-and-key intermolecular interactions. The driving forces for molecular organization are quite varied and as summarized in Scheme 1 can be based upon ionic, covalent, hydrogen, ...