Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Supramolecular polymerization

Living it up

Nature Chemistry volume 6, pages 171–173 (2014)Cite this article

Subjects

Protein fibril formation is involved in many human diseases and thus has been mechanistically elucidated in the context of understanding — and in turn treating — them. This biological phenomenon has now also inspired the design of a supramolecular system that undergoes living polymerization.

Self-assembly has become a widely applied approach in chemistry and material science to direct individual molecules into larger functional structures. The dimensionality of the self-assembled structures may be distinguished between zero-dimensional objects (such as metallosupramolecular cages), one-dimensional fibres (supramolecular polymers), two-dimensional sheets (vesicles or self-assembled monolayers on surfaces) and three-dimensional solids (metal–organic frameworks).

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Energy landscape for the aggregation pathways observed for porphyrin dyes in ref. 3.

References

  1. Whitesides, G. M., Mathias, J. P. & Seto, C. T. Science 254, 1312–1319 (1991).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Powers, E. T. & Powers, D. L. Biophys. J. 94, 379–391 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Ogi, S., Sugiyasu, K., Manna, S., Samitsu, S. & Takeuchi, M. Nature Chem. 6, 188–195 (2014)10.1038/nchem.1849.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. De Greef, T. F. A. et al. Chem. Rev. 109, 5687–5754 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Chen, Z., Lohr, A., Saha-Möller, C. R. & Würthner, F. Chem. Soc. Rev. 38, 564–584 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Aguzzi, A. & Calella, A. M. Physiol. Rev. 89, 1105–1152 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Gilroy, J. B. et al. Nature Chem. 2, 566–570 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Frank Würthner is at the Center for Nanosystems Chemistry and the Institut für Organische Chemie at the Universität Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074 Würzburg, Germany,

    Frank Würthner

Authors
  1. Frank Würthner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Frank Würthner.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Würthner, F. Living it up. Nature Chem 6, 171–173 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.1863

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.1863

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing