“Mechanics” of Molecular Assembly: Real-Time and In-Situ Analysis of Nano-to-Mesoscopic Scale Hierarchical Structures and Nonequilibrium Phenomena

Abstract We have presented studies of the mechanics of molecular assembly for multicomponent molecular systems in the context of nonlinear and nonequilibrium phenomena. The studies cover the following three themes: (i) elucidation of space-time self-assembly of hierarchical structures, in the length scale ranging from nm to μm, of binary molecular mixtures via phase transition by means of real-time and in-situ analyses with various scattering methods and microscopy methods; (ii) elucidation of self-assembly of molecular mixtures under shear flow in the context of open nonequilibrium phenomena by means of newly developed rheo-optical methods, leading us to discover new dissipative structures as well as shear-induced phase transitions both from single-phase to two-phase and from two-phase to single-phase; (iii) elucidation of the influences of chemical bonds between different component polymers in block copolymers on microphase transition and ordered microdomain structures with nano-scale periodicity and various space-group symmetries and exploration of nano-fabrication methods of microdomain structures as templates in the context of nano-science and nano-technology of block copolymers. In each of the three themes, we highlight and emphasize the fact that polymer systems provide very good model systems for basic studies of nonlinear and nonequilibrium phenomena because of the fact that large structures evolve very slowly in polymer systems. The studies may give perspectives for creating advanced soft materials responsive to environmental stimuli and for understanding activities, adaptation, and evolution of living organisms.