Aqueous Self-Assembly with Cucurbit[n]urils: From Solution to Emulsion
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Making use of the non-covalent bond to make materials is of great interest in many fields of research. This PhD thesis describes a variety of highly interdisciplinary research undertaken at the interface between chemistry, materials science, physics and engineering. Chapter 1 is an introductory chapter into the core concepts underlying this thesis. Supramolecular chemistry as a broad research field is briefly reviewed, followed by a focus on host-guest chemistry. The macrocyclic cucurbit[n]urils (CB[n]s) in particular are highlighted with a discussion on their recent applications since their discovery. Emulsions and their controlled generation with microfluidic techniques are then reviewed, as they have been used as templates for self-assembly processes throughout this thesis. A study into the synthesis of extended polymer networks composed entirely from small molecules held together by non-covalent interactions is described in Chapter 2. These
highly dynamic and responsive supramolecular polymer networks have not yet been constructed with CB[n] host-guest chemistry. The ability of the larger CB[8] macrocycle to encapsulate multiple guest molecules in a stepwise fashion was taken advantage on in designing the synthesis of branching monomers. The monomers had two (A
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Abell, Chris