For perfect oligomers, you need to look beyond synthesis. Assembly conditions are also essential, says Chemistry A European Journal.

What do Marvel’s Avengers and oligomers have in common? Just assembling them in any given way is not the best approach. You need a plan. How you assemble oligomers and what the processing conditions are, is just as important as your design of the molecular structures. ‘The precision with which you can synthesize oligomers plays a big part in why they’re so popular in the field of nanotechnology’, says Ghislaine Vantomme, Assistant Professor Macro-Organic Chemistry at TU Eindhoven. ‘In nanotechnology, you need to prepare structures of high precision that are perfectly defined at the molecular level, reducing domain spacings and improving long-range order, so you can steer the function of the materials you want to make.’