The 14th conference of International Association of Colloid and Interface (IACIS) Scientists was held at May 13-18 in Sendai Japan. Prof. Xi Zhang from the Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University was invited to give a 60-min plenary lecture about his recent results on the controlled self-assembly and disassembly of supra-amphiphiles.
The conference of IACIS is held every three years, which is one of the most important international conferences in the field of colloid and interface. The conference in this year was organized by IACIS together with the Chemical Society of Japan and the Science Council of Japan. More than 1000 researchers from 24 countries took part in the conference. Emperor Akihito of Japan, Motohisa Furukawa, Minister of State for Special Missions of Noda Cabinet, Professor Takashi Onishi, President of the Science Council of Japan and other officers took part in the opening ceremony and receptions. The conference lasted for five days, with a plenary lecture from a famous scientist in this field everyday.
Supra-amphiphiles refer to amphiphiles those are formed on the basis of noncovalent interactions or dynamic covalent bonds. Many functional supramolecular assemblys can be fabricated using Supra-amphiphiles as building blocks. Advances in the development of supra-amphiphiles will not only enrich the family of conventional amphiphiles that are based on covalent bonds but will also expand both the field of colloid and interface and supramolecular science. The results have been summarized in an article published on Accounts of Chemical Research, 2012, 45, 608-618.
