Exotic Phases, Growth and Dynamics of Self-Assembled Molecular Networks: Random Tilings, Quasicrystals and Glasses

在我们周围的世界中，我们习惯于看到瓷砖结构，从衣服上的图案到地板覆盖物和艺术品。通常，这些结构是高度有序的，并且包括它们的组分的对称阵列。我们对这种排列的熟悉可能会导致我们忽视我们周围存在的随机瓷砖和准晶体结构。事实上，这样的结构被发现在一个广泛的环境从玻璃到伊斯兰艺术。我们最近证明，这是可能的创建随机平铺结构使用精心设计的尺寸和分子间的相互作用的分子。这样的分子可以被认为是简单的瓷砖和我们的原始工作已经打开了研究的结构，旨在避免平移顺序的自组装的可能性。我们的研究超越了超分子化学的传统范式，更接近于自然系统的行为。随机平铺系统的构建，例如那些将要制备的系统，对各种学科都具有非常重要的意义，超越了化学和物理学，对研究优化问题和统计力学的科学家，对那些研究准晶体和所谓的自旋冰问题的科学家。

In the world around us we are used to seeing tiled structures from patterns on clothes to floor coverings and artwork. Typically these structures are highly ordered and comprise symmetric arrays of their components. Our familiarity with such arrangements can lead us to overlook random tiling and quasi-crystalline structures that are present all around us. Indeed such structures are found in a broad spectrum of environments from glasses to Islamic art. We recently demonstrated that it is possible to create random tiled structures using molecules with carefully designed dimensions and intermolecular interactions. Such molecules can be considered as simple tiles and our original work has opened the possibility of studying the self-assembly of structures that are designed to avoid translational order. Our studies move beyond the conventional paradigms of supramolecular chemistry and are more akin to the behaviour of natural systems.The construction of random tiling systems, such as those that will be prepared, has great importance to a variety of disciplines, moving beyond chemistry and physics to scientists working on optimisation problems and statistical mechanics, to those researching quasi-crystals and the so-called spin-ice problem.