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Self-assembly is a promising route to provide functional nanomaterials that meet technological challenges in organic electronics, energy storage and biomaterials. Oligomers of aniline are switchable, conductive organic materials that can self-assemble, mimicking the properties of the well-known conducting polymer poly(aniline) but with improved solubility and versatility for applications. In this thesis, the preparation of a family of amphiphiles based on oligo(aniline) is described. The structure of these species, bearing a cationic headgroup common to surfactants, was designed to endow water-solubility and thus provide a strong driving force for the hydrophilic oligo(aniline) section to self-assemble. The headgroup structure was varied to include several different quaternary amines, and the self-assembly of a trimethylammonium-bearing oligo(aniline) amphiphile in water was investigated in detail. Investigations by electron microscopy, UV-Vis spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction showed isodesmic self-assembly into one-dimensional anisotropic nanowires of single-molecule thickness occurred in a manner typical of chromonic liquid crystals, and the arrangement of oligo(aniline)s within self-assemblies was elucidated. Self-assembled helical conductive nanowires were produced in water by ionic complexation of single-enantiomer camphorsulfonic acid with oligo(aniline) amphiphiles, as observed by circular dichroism, four-point probe resistance and UV-Vis spectroscopy measurements. A variety of other · strong organic acids were found to promote self-assembly into fibrous or spherical structures; proof of principle that oligo(aniline) is a versatile platform for construction of supramolecular functional materials. Oligo(aniline) amphiphiles were used to address an important technological challenge by dispersing carbon nanotubes in water. Dispersion conditions were investigated and optimised by UV-Vis and electron microscopy, and the resulting oligo(aniline)-carbon nanotube dispersions were used to fabricate flexible all-organic electrochemical capacitors for energy storage. Oligo(aniline) amphiphiles are found to be promising for highly ordered, tunable, functional supramolecular materials. This work provides understanding and a basis for their further development.

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Within this thesis the principle and application of induction heating will be introduced and the synthesis of magnetic materials, specifically ferrite type materials, via sol-gel methods reported. It is shown that the optimized ferrites demonstrated both excellent catalytic and induction heating properties which can be applied to various reactions. The reaction range can even be extended if magnetic materials are coated with other catalytically active components. Another possible solution which is discussed is the combination of induction heating of bulk metal materials which have been physically blended with an active catalyst. These inductively heated particles then transfer the reaction heat to the surrounding catalyst particles thereby assisting the reaction. The main example used is the oxidative ethylbenzene dehydrogenation reaction. This has been intensively studied over past number of decades as styrene is one of the most useful intermediate compounds for organic synthesis. The combination of induction heating with catalytically active magnetic materials will be introduced here and compared to traditional thermal heating. It will be shown that less deactivation was obtained under induction heating when using CoFe2O4 as a dual functional catalyst. The thesis concludes with an overall discussion and some personal views on potential future directions for this work.

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