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Materials science

Asymmetry the easy way

Nature volume 398, pages 107–108 (1999)Cite this article

From the atomic scale to the macroscopic, symmetry pervades nature. Crystalline materials, for example, can be described by any one of 230 space filling symmetry groups, which optimize energetic interactions between atoms or molecules. Self-assembled systems generally form with a point, line or plane of symmetry. This natural tendency towards symmetric structures has been the bane of self-assembled systems in applications ranging from liquid-crystal displays to frequency modulators to optical switches. On page 137of this issue, Stadler and colleagues1 demonstrate a novel approach to producing a material that self-assembles to form a non-centrosymmetric layered nanostructure.

Materials with bulk electric polarization can display many properties, such as non-linear optical effects and switchability. Whereas individual molecules can have a permanent dipole or magnetic moment, in a large assembly of such dipoles, the orientations of consecutive molecules oppose one another, cancelling out any permanent moment in the material. External magnetic or electric fields can be used to overcome the energetics underpinning the alternating or random orientation of dipoles in a material, but slow, inexorable relaxations tend to drive the system to its lowest energy state — that is, with no permanent net dipole. In addition, such poling processes increase fabrication complexity and thus cost, reducing the likelihood of practical application.

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Figure 1: Diblock and triblock copolymer morphologies.
Figure 2: Diblock/triblock copolymer blends.

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  1. The Polymer Science and Engineering Department, Conte Building, University of Massachusetts, Amherst , 01003, Massachusetts, USA

    Samuel P. Gido

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  1. Samuel P. Gido
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Gido, S. Asymmetry the easy way. Nature 398, 107–108 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/18114

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