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Updated: Oct 4, 2025

Molecular Entanglement and Electrospinnability of Biopolymers
Published on: September 3, 2014
Molecular weaving
Zhi-Hui Zhang1, Björn J Andreassen2, David P August2
1School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China.
Abstract:
Historically, the interlacing of strands at the molecular level has mainly been limited to coordination polymers and DNA. Despite being proposed on a number of occasions, the direct, bottom-up assembly of molecular building blocks into woven organic polymers remained an aspirational, but elusive, target for several decades. However, recent successes in two-dimensional and three-dimensional molecular-level weaving now offer new opportunities and research directions at the interface of polymer science and molecular nanotopology. This Perspective provides an overview of the features and potential of the periodic nanoscale weaving of polymer chains, distinguishing it from randomly entangled polymer networks and rigid crystalline frameworks. We review the background and experimental progress so far, and conclude by considering the potential of molecular weaving and outline some of the current and future challenges in this emerging field.
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