Supramolecular enzyme mimics by self-assembly

The development of supramolecular chemistry has led to a shift in the research focus from the structural design of supramolecules to developing functional systems, such as supramolecular enzyme models. The supramolecular enzyme mimics can be readily constructed by self-assembly which is an efficient strategy for generating highly-ordered structures with complex and hierarchical architectures to mimic the biopolymers. The study of supramolecular enzyme mimics has implications for understanding both the structure-function relationships of natural enzymes and the thermodynamic mechanism during catalysis. Additionally, they are potentially useful in many important applications, e.g., medicinal application and industrial biocatalysts and so on. This review is aimed at giving a brief overview of the synthesis of supramolecular enzyme mimics and their functions. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.