Preparation of element-block materials using inorganic nanostructures and their applications

The evolution of organic-inorganic hybrids is highly desirable for the further acquisition of functionalities not achievable with conventional polymer materials in terms of mechanical, electronic, optical, and magnetic properties. Element-blocks, which are heterogeneous structures consisting of organic and inorganic components mixed at the element level, and their highly ordered polymeric derivatives, element-block polymers, are highly useful for overcoming a number of difficult problems. Among the various approaches to establishing element-blocks, this review focuses on surface modification of inorganic nanostructures with organic molecules to control interactions at the interfaces between organic and inorganic components in the organic-inorganic hybrids. For the design of surface-modified inorganic-nanostructure-based element-blocks, the dimensional features of inorganic nanostructures and the methods of modifying organic molecules on the surfaces are discussed from the viewpoint of nanomaterials. Finally, various applications using surface-modified inorganic-nanostructure-based element-blocks are introduced in terms of polymer-based hybrids and hierarchal architectures to provide successful examples, which are important to the development of polymeric materials based on element-blocks.