Molecular Self-assembly Under Process Intensified Conditions

Molecular self-assembly is a science to form regular structures spontaneously based on weak intermolecular interactions. With the self-assembly process going, the system presented ordered status from disordered status, which is meaningful to design and fabricate composite materials with unique physical and chemical properties. Self-assembly processes are common in natural world and provide solutions to learn various structures at all scales for human beings. Meanwhile, self-assembly is an efficient approach to synthesize and fabricate complex structures beyond molecular level. But currently there are few reports on principles of adjusting assembly process with quantified or semi-quantified descriptions, which has limited establishment of theoretical models for assembly process.In this thesis, we have applied relatively mature theories in intensification of chemical engineering process to two typical molecular assembly processes:the fabrication of multilayers through layer-by-layer self-assembly and the micellization of amphiphile block copolymers. By investigating the effects of intensified methods in chemical engineering processes on molecular self-assembly, we have provide a novel strategy to promote molecular self-assembly from fundamental science to industry.The research work focuses on the following three aspects:1. By applying the intensified process of high gravity field to layer-by-layer self-assembly, we have enhanced the adsorption rate of polyelectrolytes and realized rapid construction of multilayers. The film surface was smoothed and the trend of accumulated surface roughness in the construction of multilayers was reduced, thus contributing to a transformation of film growth pattern from exponential increasing to linear growing way.2. The adsorption rate could be adjusted through different strength of high gravity field. The as-prepared thin film under high gravity field was smooth and compact, which exhibited good blocking effect of ion permeability and lower isomerization of azobenzene molecules.3. The high gravity field was used to tune the morphology and hydrated diameter of micelles through simple physical shear forces and the results showed that this method was versatile to some degree.