Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 9, 2026

Self-assembling Morphologies Obtained from Helical Polycarbodiimide Copolymers and Their Triazole Derivatives
Published on: February 7, 2017
Star-shaped oligo(p-phenylenevinylene) substituted hexaarylbenzene: purity, stability, and chiral self-assembly
Zeljko Tomović1, Joost van Dongen, Subi J George
1Laboratory of Macromolecular and Organic Chemistry, Eindhoven University of Technology, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
An oligo(p-phenylenevinylene) (OPV)-substituted hexaarylbenzene has been synthesized and fully characterized. Recycling gel permeation chromatography appeared to be a powerful technique to obtain the OPV molecules in a very pure form. X-ray analysis and polarization optical microscopy revealed that the OPV molecule is plastic crystalline at room temperature with an ordered columnar superstructure. In apolar solvents, the molecules self-assemble via a highly cooperative fashion into right-handed chiral superstructures, which are stable even at high temperatures and low concentration. Atomic force microscopy revealed right-handed fibers with a diameter of 6 nm, indicating pi-stacked aggregates; on a silicon oxide substrate, supercoiled chiral structures were observed. STM studies on a liquid-solid interface showed that the star-shaped OPV molecule forms an organized monolayer having a chiral hexagonal lattice.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Structure of Benzene: Molecular Orbital Model
Frost Circles for Different Conjugated Systems
Stability of Substituted Cyclohexanes
The two chair conformations of cyclohexanes undergo rapid interconversion at room temperature. Both forms have identical energies and stabilities, each comprising equal amounts of the equilibrium mixture. Replacing a hydrogen atom with a functional group makes the two conformations energetically non-equivalent.
For example, in...
Aromatic Hydrocarbon Cations: Structural Overview
Removing one hydrogen from the intervening CH2 group with both...
Criteria for Aromaticity and the Hückel 4n + 2 Rule
For the first time, Eric Hückel, a German chemical physicist, derived a set of structural features for a compound to be classified as aromatic. This is now known as Hückel’s rule or the 4n + 2 rule.
Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur
A consequence of chirality is the need for enantiomeric resolution. While this is theoretically possible for all...

