Template-Free Self-Assembly of Two-Dimensional Polymers into Nano/Microstructured Materials

In the past few decades, enormous efforts have been made to synthesize covalent polymer nano/microstructured materials with specific morphologies, due to the relationship between their structures and functions. Up to now, the formation of most of these structures often requires either templates or preorganization in order to construct a specific structure before, and then the subsequent removal of previous templates to form a desired structure, on account of the lack of self-error-correcting properties of reversible interactions in polymers. The above processes are time-consuming and tedious. A template-free, self-assembled strategy as a bottom-up route to fabricate well-defined nano/microstructures remains a challenge. Herein, we introduce the recent progress in template-free, self-assembled nano/microstructures formed by covalent two-dimensional (2D) polymers, such as polymer capsules, polymer films, polymer tubes and polymer rings.

Automated summary

Efforts have been made to synthesize covalent polymer nano/microstructured materials with specific morphologies, typically by using templates or preorganization followed by template removal. However, the challenge remains in developing a template-free, self-assembled strategy for well-defined nano/microstructures formed by covalent polymers.