Supramolecular structures: Small 12/2009

The cover picture illustrates free-standing bridges of particles glued together by supramolecular interactions. These bridges are composed in a three-step procedure, involving the capillary-assisted assembly of the particles onto a soft template, infiltration with supramolecular glues in a layer-by-layer (LbL) fashion, and transfer of the complete structure onto topographically patterned substrates. Nanomechanical characterization of the bridges by atomic force microscopy shows the robustness of the bridges and indicates that the strength can be tuned by varying the number of layers in the LbL assembly step. For more information, please read the Full Paper “Freestanding 3D Supramolecular Particle Bridges: Fabrication and Mechanical Behavior” by J. Huskens et al., beginning on page 1428.