大组装基元的形状和强相互作用指导的精确自组装

蛋白质是巨大的、复杂的分子。它们具有的独特形状和特定相互作用指导着它们自组装成大的、罕见的纳米结构的病毒。受“蛋白质-病毒”自组装过程的启发，我们计划设计和合成具有独特的形状和特定相互作用的大组装基元，并研究它们的自组装过程和纳米结构。在研究工作中，我们选择大分子量的、具有三维形状的多金属氧酸盐簇（POM）和笼型倍半硅氧烷簇（POSS）作为起始原料，并通过合理的分子设计来构筑具有希望形状的大组装基元（xPOM-yPOSS）。当精确地控制了xPOM-yPOSS大组装基元的化学结构、几何形状以及强相互作用的POM簇的位置和数目后，就能够编辑它们的自组装过程，创造出精确控制的新型纳米结构，发展特异功能和性质的新型纳米材料。我们期望通过实施这项研究工作获得有原创性的研究结果，为自组装科学研究提出新颖的学术思想。

Proteins are large, complex molecules. Their unique shapes and special interactions direct them to self-assemble into large, complex viruses that have an unusual nanostructure. Inspirited by protein-to-virus self-assembly, we will design and synthesize large building blocks with unique shapes and specified interactions and then study their self-assembling process and self-assembled nanostructures. In our study, we will select polyoxometalate (POM) clusters and polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS) as raw material to construct large building blocks with desired shapes. After a precise control of their chemical structures, shapes, and interactions, we can edit their self-assembling process, then create precisely controlled nanostructures, and finally generate novel nanomaterials with unique functions and properties. We expect that this investigation will provide some original findings for opening up a new way for self-assembly study.