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Updated: Aug 13, 2026

Solid-phase Submonomer Synthesis of Peptoid Polymers and their Self-Assembly into Highly-Ordered Nanosheets
Published on: November 2, 2011
Nanoassembly of a fractal polymer: a molecular "Sierpinski hexagonal gasket"
George R Newkome1, Pingshan Wang, Charles N Moorefield
1Department of Polymer Science, University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325-4717, USA. newkome@uakron.edu
Abstract:
Mathematics and art converge in the fractal forms that also abound in nature. We used molecular self-assembly to create a synthetic, nanometer-scale, Sierpinski hexagonal gasket. This nondendritic, perfectly self-similar fractal macromolecule is composed of bis-terpyridine building blocks that are bound together by coordination to 36 Ru and 6 Fe ions to form a nearly planar array of increasingly larger hexagons around a hollow center.

