Self-assembled microstructures of functional molecules

Recent developments of bottom-up fabrication based on self-assembly processes allow us to construct well-designed nano- and microstrctures such as spheres, fibers, tubes, and disks from various functional molecules including biopolymers, conjugated molecules, porphyrins, graphenes, and fullerenes. These assembling techniques do not always require traditional (hydrophilic/hydrophilic) amphiphilic structure. A wide range of functional molecules can be now applied for the fabrication of desired microstructures. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.