Fig. 1. Growth of fibre-like micelles via the living crystallisation-driven self-assembly of PFDMS block terpolymers. (A) Schematic representation of the formation of cylindrical micelles. The chemical structure of unimers are shown in orange (PFDMS), red (PDMS) and purple (P3OT). (B) Self-assembly of PFDMS₄₄-b-PDMS₂₅₀-b-P3OT₁₇ unimers to form polydisperse micelles. (C) Fragmentation of the micelles using sonication to yield seeds. (D) Chemical adsorption of seeds on a metal (Au or Pt) electrode surface. (E) Growth of a fibre-like micelle from adsorbed seeds to cross the inter-electrode gap of an electrical device. (F and G) AFM images of adsorbed seeds on gold surface after immersion for 2 h in a 0.5 μg ml^–1 solution in decane. The surfaces were then washed by immersion for (F) 2 min and (G) 24 h in pure decane. (H) Image of a seed adsorbed on a gold substrate from a 0.005 μg ml^–1 solution of seeds immersed for 2 h. (I) Image of a micelle grown from an adsorbed seed on gold by immersion in 4 μg ml^–1 solution of unimers for 18 h.