Organic nanomaterials

Abstract

Nanomaterials, notable for their extremely small feature size, have the potential for wide-ranging industrial, biomedical, and electronic applications. Organic nanomaterials, with the utility of weak noncovalent interactions for the design and self-assembly of molecules one by one into desired structures, give the potential advantages of constructing building blocks using synthetic chemistry at multiple levels, and open the bottom-up route for synthesis of organic and polymeric nanostructures; for example, self-assembly of organic molecules with the assistance of noncovalent interactions, such as hydrogen bonding, electrostatic interactions, and pi-stacking, provides a powerful strategy for synthesis of molecular nanostructures, which have been attracting particular attention since the 1990s as a bottom-up paradigm of nanosciences, and discrete nanoparticles with controlled chemical composition and size distribution are readily synthesized. However, the assembly of well-defined nanostructures in large areas, the tuning of noncovalent interactions for efficient assembly, and the dynamics and model of the self-assembly process remain challenging and demanding tasks. There is still a long way to go to achieve true mastery of the art. It will be attractive to find a simple, efficient, and controllable way to produce organic nanomaterials in large areas (mass production) as well as to bridge their applications in organic optoelectronics. In fact, organic nanomaterials have been projected as active components in optoelectronic devices recently, not to mention the great efforts invested in manipulating their morphologies and tailoring their functions. The overall aim of this chapter is to bring together science and applications on organic nanomaterials with emphasis on synthesis and preparation, processing, characterization, and applications of organic nanomaterials that enable novel or enhanced properties or functions, including experiments and applications.