Colloid Chemistry II (Topics in Current Chemistry) (v. 2)

Colloid Chemistry II (Topics in Current Chemistry) (v. 2)





PREFACE BY MARKUS ANTONIETTI:

Over the past forty years, good-old fashioned colloid chemistry has undergone something of a revolution, transforming itself from little more than a collection of qualitative observations of the macroscopic behavior of some complex systems into a discipline with a solid theoretical foundation and a whole toolbox of new chemical techniques. It can now boast a set of concepts which go a long way towards providing an understanding of the many strange and interesting behavior patterns exhibited by natural and artificial systems on the mesoscale.

This second volume of "Topics in Current Chemistry" on Colloid Chemistry, focuses on supramolecular approaches and new approaches towards polymer colloids, also with strong emphasis on biological and biomedical applications. Again topics were chosen which are expected to have broader relevance and to be interesting to a more general readership.

The volume opens with a contribution by C.M. Paleos in which new amphiphiles are presented which not only self-assemble to micelles or vesicles but also possess the ability to show specific recognition of complementary H-bridge patterns. Such structures might point a way to a rational addressing of surfaces and supramolecular structures by purely chemical means.

In the contribution by K. Esumi, the use of dendrimers or dendritic amphiphiles for the controlled generation of nanoparticles is reviewed. Depending on dendrimer generation, different well-defined particle sizes and hybrid morphologies can be made, whereas the outer shells are still given by the dendrimer and its functionality pattern on the outer rim. As in the previous contribution, such systems may be very relevant for controlled contrasting and recognition in biological systems.

Ascending the accessible length scales of colloid chemistry, K. Holmberg demonstrates how microemulsions can be favorably used to perform specific organic reactions in a highly efficient way. Microemulsions expose large, stable oil-water interfaces of up to 1000 m2 g-1 the control of which is the key factor whenever reactants/catalysts/products show very different polarity and live in different phases. This is especially worth considering when the reactions can be performed in the "green solvent" water.

The very high promise of reactions in heterophase systems is extended by K. Landfester who writes about the "boom-topic" miniemulsions. Miniemulsions are liquid/liquid dispersions with stable droplets with a size range between 30 nm < d < 300 nm, and they are indeed the first convenient realization of stable nanoreactors, with a number of perspectives especially for polymer, nanoparticle, and nanohybrid synthesis.

G. Tovar describes one of the novel chemical applications of modern colloidal systems by using such miniemulsions (in addition to classical suspension polymerization) for molecular imprinting. Here, the stable nanoreactor situation is used to "synthesize" particle surfaces with molecular sized cavities for biomedically relevant species or species to be separated from each other. Such "receptor" sites are nowadays preferentially made by the pathways of modern colloid chemistry.

It is again a special chemical surface design of polymer latex particles which is delineated in the contribution by A. Elaissari. Here, special routes have been developed to modify both the particle polarity, the surface charge and its chemical functionality to reveal specific binding with DNA and peptides. Obviously, such species are highly relevant for particle-based diagnostic and particle-based cell separation.

F. Caruso uses monodisperse polymer spheres and their colloidal crystals only as templates to create hollow capsules or extended opal arrays with the layer-by-layer technique. Again this is a typical colloid chemistry tool which is unparalleled in low molecular weight organic chemistry, and hollow mesostructures systems with astonishingly high complexity and chemical function can be generated.

The volume is closed with a contribution by J. Bibette who describes and illustrates a simplified process of making monodisperse emulsions and emulsion based particles with predictable size and size distribution by a simple shearing device. I regard this very flexible route as important for the conception of many future particle-based systems, devices and procedures, and it is rather the rule than the exception that colloid chemistry nicely integrates mechanical and engineering procedures to access the nanoscale in a rational way.

I think that the present two "Colloid Chemistry" issues of "Topics in Current Chemistry" nicely cover the width and the modern spirit of colloid science which (mostly just recently) has given chemists a whole new toolbox for treating and creating chemical nanostructures in a rational way. With this in mind, I hope that all the readers will find some inspiration and profit in the various contributions.









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