Collaborative research between the Universities of Pennsylvania and Sheffield has developed a new strategy for the rational design of libraries of self-assembling dendrons.

Virgil Percec and co-workers have implemented the deconstruction of self-assembling dendrons – where branches are systematically and sequentially removed to access novel dendron primary structures – thereby overcoming the predictability of molecular topologies using the generational approach. Such new supramolecular architectures include triple continuous and bicontinous cubic lattices, hexagonal columnar superlattices, and a novel columnar simple orthorhombic phase (see picture).

• Deconstruction as a Strategy for the Design of Libraries of Self-Assembling Dendrons
  Brad M. Rosen, Mihai Peterca, Chenghong Huang, Xiangbing Zeng, Goran Ungar, Virgil Percec
  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2010.
  DOI: 10.1002/anie.201002514
• Deconstruction as a Strategy for the Design of Libraries of Self-Assembling Dendrons
  Brad M. Rosen, Mihai Peterca, Chenghong Huang, Xiangbing Zeng, Goran Ungar, Virgil Percec
  Angew. Chem. 2010, 122.
  DOI: 10.1002/ange.201002514