Nanofibers and nanospirals fabricated through the interfacial organization of a partially fluorinated compound

Nanostructures composed of fluorinated compounds are of great interest both for fundamental investigations and practical applications. In this paper, we have investigated the supramolecular assembly of two carbamate derivatives, 3,3,4,4,5,5,6,6,7,7,8,8,9,9,10,10,11,11,12,12,12-henicosa fluorododecyl 1-naphthylcarbamate (F10C2Np) and 3,3,4,4,5,5,6,6,7,7,8,8,9,9,10,10,11,11,12,12,12-henicosa fluorododecyl phenylcarbamate (F10C2Ph), which bear partially fluorinated alkyl tails on their molecular skeletons, through the air/water interfacial organization. It has been found that F10C2Np could form nanofiber or nanospiral structure with a dimension of several micrometers, while F10C2Ph formed straight ribbon-like structures. More interestingly, when the multilayer films of both of the compounds were subjected to the circular dichroism (CD) measurements, distinct CD signals could be detected, although the compounds themselves are optically inactive. Based on a series of characterizations on the films and the structural features of the molecules, a size mismatching effect was suggested to explain the interesting phenomenon.