This invention relates to a class of aminimides structurally characterized as an acyl nitrogen-nitrogen ylide such that the acyl moiety possess the structural diversity element G, the quaternary nitrogen possess structural diversity elements E and F, and the quaternary nitrogen is bonded to a hydroxyethyl substituent, which in turn is bonded to an aminomethylene moiety that possess structural diversity elements A and B from the amino group and diversity element c from the methylene substituent, as shown below, ##STR1## wherein structural diversity element A, B, C, D, E, F and G are chosen from the set of elements consisting of substituted and unsubstituted as well as branched and straight chain alkyl, aryl, alkaryl, aralkyl, carbocyclic, heterocyclic, hydrogen, amino acid, peptide, polypeptide, protein, depsipeptide, carbohydrate derivatives, nucleotide derivatives, oligonucleotide derivatives, naturally occurring or synthetic organic structural motifs, reporter elements, organic moieties containing at least one polymerizable group, macromolecular component, resin, silicate, other surface and particle support, the diversity elements can be the same, can be different, and can also be connected to form a ringed to several ringed species.

The design and synthesis of novel aminimide-based molecular modules and the use of the modules in the construction of new molecules and fabricated materials is disclosed. The new molecules and fabricated materials are molecular recognition agents useful in the design and synthesis of drugs, and have applications in separations and materials science.

A method of making a polymer having specific physiochemical properties by forming a first module having a structure which includes at least two structural diversity elements suitable to impart a desired physical property to a polymer which is made from said monomer; and reacting one or more modules to form a polymer having specific physiochemical properties. The base module can be formed by reacting a first compound having at least one structural diversity element and a first reactive group, with a second compound having at least one structural diversity element and a second reactive group, wherein the first and second groups combine by an addition reaction. Specifically, an aminimide compound, an oxazolone compound or derivatives thereof are useful as base modules in the invention.

A method for constructing an array of synthetic molecular constructs, by forming a plurality of molecular constructs having a scaffold backbone of a chemical molecule comprising a linear, branched or cyclic organic compound having at least atoms of carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorus, or combinations thereof, and at least one location on the molecule capable of undergoing reaction with other molecules for attachment of at least one structural diversity element; laying out an array possessing a logical ordering of sub-arrays of the molecular constructs; providing each sub-array with molecular constructs having the scaffold backbone and at least one structural diversity element which is different from the others; and relating each sub-array within the array to all other sub arrays by the difference in the structural diversity elements.

This invention is directed to an m.times.n array of different chemical compounds wherein each of said compounds has at least one structural diversity element selected from a group of amines and ketones and wherein the scaffold structure is selected from a group consisting of aminimide, imidazolone, sulfonylaminimide and phosphonylaminimide.