Nature is an expert at self-assembly. Your body, as a whole, is a complex compartmentalised system of molecules, reactions, and replicators, all underpinned by self-assembly and supramolecular chemistry.
We have several projects which aim to exploit the unique properties of pi-conjugated molecules to make useful materials. We currently have projects exploring singlet fission and Faraday rotation.
Aromatic molecules are cyclic and pi-conjugated, and exhibit some interesting effects. Most well-known nowadays is the behaviour of aromatic molecules in a magnetic field: in an NMR spectrometer, we see that the chemical shifts of protons inside and outside the ring appear (de)shielded. This effect arises from the establishment of a persistent ring current of circulating pi-electrons, which itself generates a molecular magnetic field which opposes the applied field.
