Credit: Image courtesy of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
On the left, atomic force microscopy images show the structures formed from a polymer with a hydrophobic (water-fearing) tail via a two-step nucleation and growth process. The top figure shows the crystal during the assembly process. The bottom figure shows the final self-assembled network. On the right, the two-step formation process is depicted. Starting from the top right corner and going counterclockwise, the clusters in solution deposit onto the surface, transform into single molecule-wide linear structures and spread laterally as new linear structures nucleate on top to form vertical 2-D crystals.