Organic supramolecular architectures and their sol-gel transcription to Silica nanotubes.

The design of artificial models of "biomineralization" processes that utilize sol-gel polymerization has led to a merging of inorganic materials research and supramolecular organic chemistry. This article introduces self-assembled superstructures of sugar-integrated and crown-appended cholesterol gelators, which are used as versatile building blocks in organogels and as templates for sol-gel transcription. This article focuses on the use of self-assembled organic superstructures in the creation of novel inorganic materials with controlled morphologies. Copyright 2003 The Japan Chemical Journal Forum and Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Chem Rec 3: 212-224; 2003: Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI 10.1002/tcr.10065