Molecular recognition in chiral and non-chiral amphiphilic self-assemblies at interfaces

Recent experimental and theoretical studies on functional self-assemblies formed at interfaces are presented and placed in perspective to earlier studies. The focus is on chiral and achiral systems that are at the boundary between two-dimensional and three-dimensional architectures and investigated at almost molecular level. More specifically, we present studies on: (i) self-organization of achiral molecules and separation of racemates into two-dimensional enantiomorphous domains at the air–water interface; (ii) molecular recognition between solute molecules and Langmuir films; (iii) the structural correlation between chiral morphology of mesoscopic architectures and the absolute configuration of the component molecules; (iv) polymerization of amphiphilic molecules at various interfaces and (v) the use of two-dimensional films as templates in three-dimensional crystallization, with relevance to biomineralization.