Construction and functions of supramolecular polymers

Recently, much attention has been focused on construction of supramolecular polymers because of their unique structures and functions. Supramolecular polymers are ubiquitous in nature, especially in biological systems, such as microtubules, flagella, virus, and phages. They have unique structures and functions such as self-replication, self-restoration, transportation, and movements. If such supramolecular systems are available by synthetic methods, we are able to obtain various interesting materials and functional devices. In the first part of this review, construction of nano-structures using cyclodextrins as a cyclic building block is described. Rotaxanes and polyrotaxanes of various kinds are introduced. In the last part, construction of supramolecular structures using biopolymers such as DNA and immunoglobulins are described. In this review, I would like to show some recent advances in this field from the viewpoint of polymer science and synthetic chemistry.