Cover Picture: Long,Monomolecular Guanine‐Based Nanowires (Adv. Mater. 15/2005)

The cover picture is an artistic view, designed by Noam Hamou, of a G‐wire, probably a G4‐DNA nanowire, where the schematic spiral and tetrad are emerging from a single molecule deposited on a mica surface, as imaged by AFM. Kotlyar and co‐workers report on p. 1901 on the development of novel long monomolecular G‐wires that, upon self‐folding, form structures of consecutive guanine tetrads with and without metal ions in the inner channel of the molecule. The continuity of the molecule backbone and its improved stiffness suggest that this single DNA‐based structure might be useful for nanoelectronic applications.     

Cover Picture: Bistable Nematic Liquid Crystals with Self‐Assembled Fibers (Adv. Mater. 6/2005)

The cover shows a recording process using nematic liquid crystal alignment. On p. 692, Kato and co‐workers report that reversibly bistable states have been achieved for nematic liquid crystals incorporating a small amount of self‐assembled fibers. Homeotropic monodomains and non‐aligned multidomains can be fixed and switched by thermal treatment in electric fields. The technique is applied to the formation of rewritable light scattering patterns, as shown on the cover.     

Cover Picture: DNA‐Templated Silver Nanorings (Adv. Mater. 23/2005)

The cover shows that toroidal condensates of duplex DNA can be used as templates for facile preparation of monodisperse nanorings of noble metals. In the work by Zinchenko and co‐workers, reported on p. 2820, conformational transition of long DNA chains from elongated coils into compact toroidal condensates changes the manner of reduced silver deposition, from DNA chain metallization with nanoparticles to the formation of silver rings. A one‐pot, three‐step, simple preparation method leads to formation of well‐defined monodisperse silver nanorings (100 nm in diameter) dispersed in water.     

Inside Front Cover: One‐Dimensional Plasmon Coupling by Facile Self‐Assembly of Gold Nanoparticles into Branched Chain Networks (Adv. Mater. 21/2005)

Short, single‐particle‐wide chains and complex networks of interconnected chains are easily self‐assembled from 13 nm Au nanoparticles by inducing a surface electrostatic dipolar moment in a controlled manner. Mann and co‐workers further demonstrate both experimentally and theoretically on p. 2553 that efficient surface plasmon coupling takes place in these extensive networks, thus opening a new bottom–up approach to subwavelength optical‐waveguiding devices. The left panel in the image shows isolated 13 nm Au nanoparticles; the back panel, short linear chains; the bottom panel, complex branched network of chains; and the right panel, a graphical rendering of optical spectroscopic properties during the self‐assembly process.     

Inside Front Cover: Self‐Assembly and Magnetism of Mn12 Nanomagnets on Native and Functionalized Gold Surfaces (Adv. Mater. 13/2005)

Single molecule magnets (SMMs) are likely to find applications as elementary units in data storage and spin electronics. The deterministic organization of SMMs on a surface is a prerequisite for their individual addressing with a scanning probe tip. On p. 1612, Bucher and co‐workers present a molecular‐scale STM study of the successive self‐assembling steps of Mn₁₂L on a Au(111) surface, as illustrated on the inside cover. The molecules in the monolayer keep their magnetism, as observed by SQUID magnetometry, although the broadening of quantum effects compared to the bulk material refers to a distribution of molecular environment.     

Inside Front Cover: Self‐Assembled Highly Faceted Wurtzite‐Type ZnS Single‐Crystalline Nanotubes with Hexagonal Cross‐Sections (Adv. Mater. 16/2005)

Highly faceted wurtzite‐type ZnS nanotubes with hexagonal cross‐section morphologies have been self‐assembled via a controllable high‐temperature thermal‐chemical reaction route in work reported by Yin and co‐workers on p. 1972. The self‐assembly growth along c‐axis to highly hexagonal‐faceted ZnS single‐crystalline nanotubes is associated with the crystallographic characteristics, such as the non‐central and polar surfaces of the wurtzite‐type ZnS structure. The faceted ZnS nanotubes grow along the <0001> direction, and are closed by low‐index faces of non‐polar {1000} faces. The inside cover and insets show electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy images of the faceted ZnS nanotubes.     

Inside Front Cover: A Supramolecular Approach to Optically Anisotropic Materials: Photosensitive Ionic Self‐Assembly Complexes (Adv. Mater. 16/2006)

Application of the supramolecular synthesis strategy ionic self‐assembly for the facile production of low‐molecular‐weight photosensitive materials is presented on p. 2133 by Stumpe, Faul, and Zakrevskyy. The materials so synthesized possess good film‐forming properties, are capable of undergoing light‐induced generation of optical anisotropy, and possess dichroic ratios of approximately 50.     

Inside Front Cover: Topological Transformation of Vesicular Mesostructured Silica (Adv. Mater. 5/2005)

The micrometer‐scale self‐assembly behavior of MCM‐41‐type mesostructured silica is shown by Tang and co‐workers on p. 578 through study of a family of vesicular mesostructured silica with topology genera from 1 to 0. The inside cover shows a series of typical vesicular structures with different topologies on the micrometer scale. A better understanding of the micrometer‐scale self‐assembly behavior provides a guide for the rational design of new hierarchical organic–inorganic composite materials, and may also shed new light on the natural biosilicification process.     

Inside Front Cover: Self‐Organization of Semiconducting Polysiloxane‐Phthalocyanine on a Graphite Surface (Adv. Mater. 10/2005)

Helical phthalocyaninato–polysiloxanes (PSPcs) can self‐organize at surfaces into highly ordered, rod‐like structures with a molecular cross‐section, as is shown schematically on the inside cover and reported by Samori and co‐workers on p. 1265. The inset is a scanning force microscopy image depicting experimentally obtained molecular cylinders with lengths in the range of hundreds of nanometers. The micrometers‐long cylinders so formed have high apparent stiffness and are good candidates for nanoscale photophysics and electronics applications.     

Inside Front Cover: Rigid,Self‐Assembled Hydrogel Composed of a Modified Aromatic Dipeptide (Adv. Mater. 11/2006)

Formation of a self‐assembled hydrogel with remarkable mechanical rigidity using a very simple building block, 9‐fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl‐diphenylalanine peptide, is reported by Gazit and co‐workers on p. 1365. The hydrogel forms under mild conditions in aqueous solution, using a much shorter peptide than previously reported, and has physical properties exceeding those of hydrogels formed by much longer polypeptides, as previously reported for diphenylalanine nanotubes. The rigidity is likely facilitated by the aromatic nature of the peptide building block. The hydrogel is stable under extreme conditions, and can be shaped in accordance to the vessel it is assembled in, making it useful for a variety of applications.     

Cover Picture: Functionalization of Crystalline Colloidal Arrays through Click Chemistry (Adv. Mater. 21/2007)

Photonic crystals based on electrostatically‐stabilized colloidal arrays dispersed in a liquid medium are of interest to materials scientists partly because of the optical tuning afforded to theses systems with a variation in interparticle distance. On p. 3507, Stephen Foulger and co‐workers from Clemson University, USA report on a general strategy for the preparation of well‐defined and regioselectively functionalized ordered colloidal particles through the exploitation of “click” chemistry. Click transformations have found utility in the synthesis and/or functionalization of a range of systems. In addition, the solvochromic tuning of the ordered arrays is employed to modify the emission spectra of the surface‐attached photoluminescent dyes.     

Cover Picture: Conducting and Superhydrophobic Rambutan‐like Hollow Spheres of Polyaniline (Adv. Mater. 16/2007)

Conductive and superhydrophobic rambutan‐like hollow spheres of polyaniline are formed through self‐assembly by using perfluorooctane sulfonic acid as a dopant, soft template, and superhydrophobic agent at the same time, as reported by Meixiang Wan and Lei Jiang on p. 2092. The results show that the approach used is not only simple, but also that the hollow spheres have a large specific area and exhibit physical properties that are required for many applications in nanotechnology.     

Cover Picture: Self‐Assembled Metal Oxide Bilayer Films with “Single‐Crystalline” Overlayer Mesopore Structure (Adv. Mater. 8/2007)

Mesoporous films with biaxial, “single‐crystalline” arrangements of spherical pores are obtained by “evaporation‐induced self‐assembly” (EISA) in work reported by Torsten Brezesinski, Markus Antonietti, and Bernd Smarsly on p. 1074. The films are dip‐coated onto a sublayer with sufficiently different surface tension and a specific nanoscale periodicity. Low adhesion to the sublayer surface results in a relatively small number of nucleation sites and a uniform orientation of the evolving mesostructure in the toplayer.     

Inside Front Cover: Self‐Assembly of SiO2 Nanowires and Si Microwires into Hierarchical Heterostructures on a Large Scale (Adv. Mater. 8/2005)

The inside cover shows a scanning electron micrograph of a novel hierarchical heterostructures, as reported by Hu and co‐workers on p. 971. The heterostructures are formed from Si core microwires covered by dense, aligned SiO₂ nanowires, thus forming multiple junctions to the cores. The inset shows a schematic of the Sn‐catalyzed vapor–liquid–solid growth mechanism. These materials are envisaged to become important for optical fibers, low‐dimensional waveguides, scanning near‐field optical microscopes and high‐bandwidth optical signal processing devices.