Fidelity in the supramolecular assembly of triply and quadruply hydrogen-bonded complexes

Advancements in self-assembly and nanotechnology will require multiple assembly "codes" to be executed simultaneously. At the molecular level this will require fidelity or orthogonality in molecular recognition events. To explore the limits of orthogonal assembly, association constants (K _assoc) and dimerization constants (K_dimer) were measured with a known series of matched and mismatched recognition units in chloroform. Using the available complexation constants, fidelity, defined as [concentration of desired complexes]/[all complexes], was modeled for several component mixtures allowing general conditions for high fidelity assembly to be elucidated.