Nucleobases as supramolecular motifs

The five main natural nucleobases adenine, cytosine, guanine, thymine and uracil are involved in the self-assembly of one of nature's most interesting and intriguing class of biopolymers, namely the nucleic acids DNA and RNA. As such, these nucleobases have held a fascination to researchers in a diverse range of fields. With the growth in the field of supramolecular chemistry and consequently a better understanding of how molecules interact with each other, more and more information is emerging on the complex supramolecular behaviour of these nucleobase. This tutorial review tries to bring together some of the basic concepts of how nucleobases can interact not only with each other, but also with other small organic molecules as well as metals and then looks at how such an understanding is starting to influence the development of new materials and polymers.