Dynamic constitutional hybrid materials-toward adaptive self-organized devices

Constitutional self-instructed mesoporous materials were developed and used for mimicking the adaptive structural functionality of natural ion-channel systems. These materials are based on dynamic hybrid materials in which the functional self-organized macrocycles are reversibly connected with the inorganic mesoporous silica through hydrophobic non-covalent interactions. Supramolecular ion-channel architectures confined within scaffolding silica hydrophobic mesopores can be structurally determined, characterized and morphologically tuned by alkali salts templating. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.