Jacob Sagiv Professor Department of Materials and Interfaces Weizmann Institute of Science Rehovot 76100, Israel Tel. 972-8-9342309 E-mail:   jacob.sagiv@weizmann.ac.il

Supramolecular Architecture at Interfaces

Supramolecular architecture is today's extension of classical synthetic chemistry. It aims at the realization of artificial multimolecular entities in which various interacting components, organic as well as inorganic, are positioned in space with respect to each other, such as to give rise to new properties and special, structure-dependent functional activity.

Our research focuses on the rational utilization of processes of molecular self-assembly, combined with chemical reactions taking place at the interface between a solid material and a surrounding fluid (liquid or gas), as a general synthetic strategy for the construction of various types of artificual supramolecular structures of gradually increasing complexity. These include:

• a recently discovered process ofmonolayer self-replication, that allows rapid preparation of highly ordered multilayer stacks, with precisely defined numbers of discrete molecular layers

• the use of microwave radiation as a new synthetic tool in the engineering of some unusual surface architectures

• a unique, non-destructive nanoelectrochemical patterning process, by means of which, nanometer-resolved chemical information can be inscribed on a solid surface coated with a single monolayer of appropriate organic molecules, so as to enable the subsequent use of this information in the control of the self-assembly of a variety of purpose-designed nanostructures, combining organic molecules with inorganic components, such as metal or semiconductor nanoparticles. Artificial nanostructures of this kind may find interesting and useful applciations as modular constituent parts of future nanometer-size electronic and optoelectronic devices.

Nanostructure made of a single layer of oriented
molecules, self-assembled on a nanoelectrochemically patterned
monolayer surface on silicon (Atomic Force Microscope image)

Relevant Publications:

1. Self-Replicating Amphiphilic Monolayers.
   R.Maoz, S.Matlis, E.DiMasi, B.M.Ocko, and J.Sagiv
   Nature 384, 150 (1996).
2. Nanoelectrochemical Patterning of Monolayer Surfaces: Toward Spatially Defined Self-Assembly of Nanostructures.
   R.Maoz, S.R.Cohen, and j.Sagiv
   Advanced Materials, in press.