Mankind's fascination with shapes and patterns, many examples of which come from nature, has greatly influenced areas such as art and architecture. Science too has long since been interested in the origin of shapes and structures found in nature. Whereas organic chemistry in general, and supramolecular chemistry especially, has been very successful in creating large superstructures of often stunning morphology, inorganic chemistry has lagged behind. Over the last decade, however, researchers in various fields of chemistry have been studying novel methods through which the shape of inorganic materials can be controlled at the micro- or even nanoscopic level. A method that has proven very successful is the formation of inorganic structures under the influence of (bio)organic templates, which has resulted in the generation of a large variety of structured inorganic structures that are currently unattainable through any other method.

pH‐sensitive gels: By using a cyclohexane‐based scaffold to which various amino acid based substituents can be connected, low‐molecular‐weight compounds were obtained that can gelate water at very low concentrations. Their modular design (see picture: AA=amino acid(s), X=hydrophilic substituent, dark purple=hydrophobic region, light purple=hydrophilic region), allows tuning of the thermally and pH‐induced reversible gel‐to‐sol transition of their gels.

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[structure: see text]. 1: R = beta-D-glucopyranoside. 2: R = alpha-D-glucopyranoside. 3: R = alpha-D-galactopyranoside. 4: R = alpha-D-mannopyranoside. As an attempt to rationally design aqueous organogelators, a bolaamphiphilic azobenzene derivative (1) bearing two sugar groups was synthesized. Compound 1 formed a gel in water even at concentrations as low as 0.05 wt % (0.65 mM). Spectroscopic studies and electron-micrographic observations have clarified the gel structure and the origin of the gelation ability for water.

Social networking: A variety of novel multicompartment nanostructures has been easily formed by combining the supramolecular aggregative properties of surfactants with low‐molecular‐weight hydrogelators that are based on 1,3,5‐cyclohexyltricarboxamide (see picture, AA=amino acid). The resulting structures include self‐assembled interpenetrating networks.