Self-assembly in mesoscopic dimension and artificial supramolecular membranes.

The development of mesoscopic supramolecular architectures is an area of growing interest. The field has grown from early works on bilayer membranes, and the design of large (super- or giant-) amphiphiles, hybrid amphiphiles and supramolecular membranes have now been described. Impartment of amphiphilicity to a unit supermolecule allows their hierarchical self-assembly to the mesoscopic structures. A supramolecular combinatorial approach is useful in the development of functional self-assemblies. In addition, self-assembly in ionic liquids has been introduced as a promising area in materials chemistry.