Tailor-Made Self-Assemblies from Functionalized Amphiphiles: Diversity and Applications

Abstract

The objective of this feature article is to coalesce our recent advancements on different expressions of tailor-made supramolecular self-assemblies and to explore them as a function of molecular architecture. In the last decade, we have developed a library of elegant and simple functional amphiphilic small molecules, which have very interesting abilities to form diverse manifestations of supramolecular self-assemblies such as micelles, reverse micelles, vesicles, fibers, supramolecular gels, and so on. Each of the expressions of the self-aggregated structures has its individual prominence and finds important applications in the fields of chemistry, physics, biology, and others. In this feature article, the major emphasis is mostly on how to attain precise control over the development of various well-defined supramolecular self-assemblies through the judicious design of low-molecular-weight amphiphiles. By tuning only the functional moieties of the amphiphilic structure, diverse supramolecular architectures can be constructed with task-specific applications. We expect that this article will provide a general and conceptual demonstration of various approaches to the development of different functional supramolecular systems and their prospective applications in numerous domains.

Magnetic Nanomaterials for Magnetically-Aided Drug Delivery and Hyperthermia

“…The reverse micelle mechanism involves the formation of micelles by surfactants, which then provide the templates for nanoparticle synthesis (Scheme 1) [70,71]. Surfactants either consist of a hydrophilic head and a hydrophobic tail, or they are non-ionic [70,71].…”

“…The reverse micelle mechanism involves the formation of micelles by surfactants, which then provide the templates for nanoparticle synthesis (Scheme 1) [70,71]. Surfactants either consist of a hydrophilic head and a hydrophobic tail, or they are non-ionic [70,71]. Once the surfactant molecules reach a certain concentration in water, commonly called a critical micelle concentration (cmc), they form micelles [70,71].…”

“…Surfactants either consist of a hydrophilic head and a hydrophobic tail, or they are non-ionic [70,71]. Once the surfactant molecules reach a certain concentration in water, commonly called a critical micelle concentration (cmc), they form micelles [70,71]. While normal micelles form in an aqueous medium, reverse micelles form in hydrophobic media [68,70].…”

“…Once the surfactant molecules reach a certain concentration in water, commonly called a critical micelle concentration (cmc), they form micelles [70,71]. While normal micelles form in an aqueous medium, reverse micelles form in hydrophobic media [68,70]. The center of a normal micelle features hydrophobic tails, but the reverse micelles contain hydrophilic heads around water-droplets in their center.…”

“…The center of a normal micelle features hydrophobic tails, but the reverse micelles contain hydrophilic heads around water-droplets in their center. Nanoparticles synthesized by reverse micelle mechanism are very homogeneous in size, because the size of the inverse micelles used as nanoreactors can be easily defined ( Figure 6) [70].…”