From the Loom to the Laboratory: Molecular Textiles

Weaving is an old technique producing fabric materials by interlocking yarns, which we appreciate every day by wearing textiles. The splendid mechanical features of these macroscopic interwoven structures such as stability, flexibility, and shape adaptability raised the question whether or not such properties might also be observed on a molecular level. In this article, molecular analogues to textiles are discussed and strategies to molecular weaves are presented. While there are impressive structural similarities between the macroscopic and the molecular world, molecular textiles consisting of interwoven linear polymers remain a challenge. The scope of the article ranges from discrete superstructures like Solomon knots, over deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) based nanoscale patterns and interwoven 2D sheets of coordination polymers, to weaving strategies interlinking small organic precursors.