Nanostructured Soft Matter

This book provides an interdisciplinary overview of a new and broad class of materials under the unifying name Nanostructured Soft Matter. It covers materials ranging from short amphiphilic molecules to block copolymers, proteins, colloids and their composites, microemulsions and bio-inspired systems such as vesicles.

Using the well-honed tools of nanotechnology, this book presents breakthrough results in soft matter research, benefitting from the synergies between the chemistry, physics, biology, materials science, and engineering communities. The team of international authors delves beyond mere structure-making and places the emphasis firmly on imparting functionality to soft nanomaterials with a focus on devices and applications. Alongside reviewing the current level of knowledge, they also put forward novel ideas to foster research and development in such expanding fields as nanobiotechnology and nanomedicine. As such, the book covers DNA-induced nanoparticle assembly, nanostructured substrates for circulating tumor cell capturing, and organic nano field effect transistors, as well as advanced dynamic gels and self-healing electronic nanodevices. With its interdisciplinary approach this book gives readers a complete picture of nanotechnology with soft matter.

This book addresses the manufacturing methods, characteristic tubular morphologies, diverse functions, and potent applications of organic tubular architectures prepared or self-assembled from rationally designed molecular building blocks. The hollow cylindrical structures with high-aspect ratios are capable of creating unique functions that can be differentiated from well-known self-assembled nanostructures such as organic nanofibers, nanoribbons, and nanorods. Encapsulation, stabilization, transportation, release, and their cooperative functions pave the way for innovative chemical, physical, biological, and medical applications. The book presents attractive advantages of soft-matter nanotubes, which are also different from well-known hard-matter nanostructures such as carbon nanotubes. The topics and figures in this volume intrigue not only academic researchers but also engineers and university students.

This book is indexed in Chemical Abstracts ServiceSoft and bio-nanomaterials offer a tremendously rich behavior due to the diversity and tailorability of their structures. Built from polymers, nanoparticles, small and large molecules, peptoids and other nanoscale building blocks, such materials exhibit exciting functions, either intrinsically or through the engineering of their organization and combination of blocks. Thus, it is not surprising that a variety of challenges, for example, in energy storage, environment protection, advanced manufacturing, purification and healthcare, can be addressed using these materials. The recent advances in understanding the behavior of soft matter and biomaterials are being actively translated into functional materials systems and devices, which take advantages of newly discovered and specifically created morphologies with desired properties. This major reference work presents a detailed overview of recent research developments on fundamental and application-inspired aspects of soft and bio-nanomaterials and their emerging functions, and will be divided into four volumes: Vol 1: Soft Matter under Geometrical Confinement: From Fundamentals at Planar Surfaces and Interfaces to Functionalities of Nanoporous Materials; Vol 2: Polymers on the Nanoscale: Nano-structured Polymers and Their Applications; Vol 3: Bio-Inspired Nanomaterials: Nanomaterials Built from Biomolecules and Using Bio-derived Principles; Vol 4: Nanomedicine: Nanoscale Materials in Nano/Bio Medicine.

Integrating nano and microphysical effects, this book’s team of expert authors offers new insights into self-organized structure formation in nanomaterials. A major question addressed in this book is the role of spatial and temporal order. In particular, you’ll discover how to apply concepts developed on macroscopic and microscopic scales to structure formation occurring on nanoscales, a key focus of interest at the frontiers of science.

Soft materials with nanometer scale aspects have been heavily used in biomedical science. Instead of providing a broad introduction of soft materials and their biomedical applications, this book focuses on the preparation of molecular assemblies of biotechnologically relevant biomimetic systems with an emphasis on medical applications.