Bioinspired Materials and Devices: Nanopores and Nanopocket

Nature frequently uses self-assembly to orchestrate recognition events. The regulation of recognition events in nature via dynamic and reversible self-assembly of building blocks has inspired the emergence of supramolecular architectures with similar biological activity. Processes of molecular recognition and self-assembly direct the way in which relatively simple building blocks recognize each other, associate and form ordered one-, two-, and three-dimensional nanostructures and macroscopic objects with nanoscale order. The organization of the building blocks into ordered structures is based on specific recognition that is facilitated by a combination of many different non-covalent interactions. This report aims to highlight the diversity of self-assembled nanostructures constructed from mono-disperse synthetic building blocks; with a particular focus on their design, self-assembly, functionalization with bioactive ligands and effects thereof on the self-assembly, and possible applications.