Supramolecular materials Amabilino, David B; Smith, David K; Steed, Jonathan W
Chemical Society reviews,
05/2017, Volume:
46, Issue:
9
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Molecular material properties depend upon the contacts between and the arrangement of the component parts, and therefore supramolecular chemistry has developed a highly important role in this area. ...This Tutorial Review, after briefly introducing the history of the field, discusses some of the most exciting and inspiring recent achievements, with special focus on soft materials, particularly gels and liquid crystals.
Molecular material properties depend upon the contacts between and the arrangement of the component parts, and therefore supramolecular chemistry has developed a highly important role in this area.
Polymer thin films that emit and absorb circularly polarised light have been demonstrated with the promise of achieving important technological advances; from efficient, high-performance displays, to ...3D imaging and all-organic spintronic devices. However, the origin of the large chiroptical effects in such films has, until now, remained elusive. We investigate the emergence of such phenomena in achiral polymers blended with a chiral small-molecule additive (1-aza6helicene) and intrinsically chiral-sidechain polymers using a combination of spectroscopic methods and structural probes. We show that - under conditions relevant for device fabrication - the large chiroptical effects are caused by magneto-electric coupling (natural optical activity), not structural chirality as previously assumed, and may occur because of local order in a cylinder blue phase-type organisation. This disruptive mechanistic insight into chiral polymer thin films will offer new approaches towards chiroptical materials development after almost three decades of research in this area.
Real-space images of polymers with sub-molecular resolution could provide valuable insights into the relationship between morphology and functionality of polymer optoelectronic devices, but their ...acquisition is problematic due to perceived limitations in atomic force microscopy (AFM). We show that individual thiophene units and the lattice of semicrystalline spin-coated films of polythiophenes (PTs) may be resolved using AFM under ambient conditions through the low-amplitude (≤ 1 nm) excitation of higher eigenmodes of a cantilever. PT strands are adsorbed on hexagonal boron nitride near-parallel to the surface in islands with lateral dimensions ~10 nm. On the surface of a spin-coated PT thin film, in which the thiophene groups are perpendicular to the interface, we resolve terminal CH
-groups in a square arrangement with a lattice constant 0.55 nm from which we can identify abrupt boundaries and also regions with more slowly varying disorder, which allow comparison with proposed models of PT domains.
The micron-scale movement of biomolecules along supramolecular pathways, mastered by nature, is a remarkable system requiring strong yet reversible interactions between components under the action of ...a suitable stimulus. Responsive microscopic systems using a variety of stimuli have demonstrated impressive relative molecular motion. However, locating the position of a movable object that travels along self-assembled fibres under an irresistible force has yet to be achieved. Here, we describe a purely supramolecular system where a molecular 'traveller' moves along a 'path' over several microns when irradiated with visible light. Real-time imaging of the motion in the solvated state using total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy shows that anionic porphyrin molecules move along the fibres of a bis-imidazolium gel upon irradiation. Slight solvent changes mean movement and restructuring of the fibres giving microtoroids, indicating control of motion by fibre mechanics with solvent composition. The insight provided here may lead to the development of artificial travellers that can perform catalytic and other functions.
One of the great challenges in stereochemistry is the explanation of why some molecules resolve spontaneously while others do not. In this critical review the recent advances in the creation of ...chiral systems from achiral and racemic compounds in three-, two- and one-dimensional systems are discussed. There are some groups of molecules in some systems that do tend to display conglomerates, which may suggest that there are enantiophobic and enantiophilic molecules whose assembly is guided by the structural and thermodynamic properties of the systems in question.
The direct coupling of complex, functional organic molecules at a surface is one of the outstanding challenges in the road map to future molecular devices. Equally demanding is to meet this challenge ...without recourse to additional functionalization of the molecular building blocks and via clean surface reactions that leave no surface contamination. Here, we demonstrate the directional coupling of unfunctionalized porphyrin moleculeslarge aromatic multifunctional building blockson a single crystal copper surface, which generates highly oriented one-dimensional organometallic macromolecular nanostructures (wires) in a reaction which generates gaseous hydrogen as the only byproduct. In situ scanning tunneling microscopy and temperature programmed desorption, supported by theoretical modeling, reveal that the process is driven by C–H bond scission and the incorporation of copper atoms in between the organic components to form a very stable organocopper oligomer comprising organometallic edge-to-edge porphyrin–Cu–porphyrin connections on the surface that are unprecedented in solution chemistry. The hydrogen generated during the reaction leaves the surface and, therefore, produces no surface contamination. A remarkable feature of the wires is their stability at high temperatures (up to 670 K) and their preference for 1D growth along a prescribed crystallographic direction of the surface. The on-surface formation of directional organometallic wires that link highly functional porphyrin cores via direct C–Cu–C bonds in a single-step synthesis is a new development in surface-based molecular systems and provides a versatile approach to create functional organic nanostructures at surfaces.
A terbium double‐decker phthalocyanine complex has been prepared and characterized. The mesomorphism of the liquid‐crystalline complex is used as a tool to reversibly adjust its magnetic properties, ...thus allowing the coexistence of two different relaxation processes, which can be reversibly modified by simple thermal treatments, to be observed.
Stereochemistry and Twisted Crystals Killalea, Catherine E.; Amabilino, David B.
Israel journal of chemistry,
October 2021, Volume:
61, Issue:
9-10
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
This review article discusses a link between stereochemistry and structural and morphological chirality. We present the remarkably frequent, but less often reported, growth of twisted crystals and ...discuss the reasons for their formation and ways to favor their growth. The more commonly encountered conglomerates and racemic compounds can be formed by achiral molecules, but the emergence of morphological chirality is often not considered in this context and perhaps deserves attention. Twisted crystals are known for a wide variety of materials, molecular and macromolecular, complexes and oxides, and so on. In growing crystals, twisting of lamellae because of strain generated during growth eventually unwinds in larger objects, and may not be detected. This kind of chiral morphology arising from low symmetry growth, and the challenges and opportunities for research in the area, are highlighted. In particular, the link between structural bending in supramolecular aggregates in solution or at interfaces, chiral nanofilaments in liquid crystals, and chiral polymers, is discussed.
Thin films of a chiral diketopyrrolopyrrole derivative were imaged with spatially-defined Mueller Matrix Polarimetry, focussing on the Circular Dichroism signal, giving unique insight into the impact ...that deposition techniques and thermal annealing can have on chiral supramolecular structures in the solid state, where homogeneity was observed for spun-coated films while drop-coating afforded chiroptical diversity in the material, a feature invisible to absorption spectroscopy or optical microscopy.
Chiral diketopyrrolopyrrole thin films imaged with spatially-defined Mueller Matrix Polarimetry revealed different supramolecular homogeneity for spun-coated and drop-coated films, indiscernible with absorption spectroscopy or optical microscopy.
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