Towards Self-sorting Materials using Hydrogen Bonding Motifs

Hydrogen bonding is one of the most useful of the non-covalent interactions. Highly directional and easily tuneable, the strength of hydrogen bonded arrays enable controlled assembly of macromolecular structures. The Wilson group has focused on utilising hydrogen bonded arrays in the development of orthogonal recognition pathways and in the controlled assembly of supramolecular polymers. The work presented in this thesis therefore combines these research areas and describes the efforts made to develop self-sorting supramolecular materials using hydrogen bonded arrays.
Chapter 1 introduces the area of hydrogen bonding motifs and the factors that control their interactions with each other through literature examples. Additionally, literature examples of the use of hydrogen bonding motifs in self-sorting supramolecular systems and supramolecular polymeric materials is explored. Chapter 2 outlines the examination of the hydrogen bonding interactions between six linear hydrogen bonding motifs, experimentally and computationally, leading to the development of a sequential self-sorting pathways and ultimately a self-sorting network. Chapter 3 focuses on the design of a responsive hydrogen bonding motif to allow reversible switching of self-sorted states in a network. Chapter 4 describes the efforts to synthesise and characterise supramolecular polymer blends capable of self-sorting with the potential to create self-sorting supramolecular materials.