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Updated: Mar 29, 2026

Self-assembling Morphologies Obtained from Helical Polycarbodiimide Copolymers and Their Triazole Derivatives
Published on: February 7, 2017
S-Shaped Conformation of the Quaterthiophene Molecular Backbone in Two-Dimensional Bisterpyridine-Derivative
Yann Kervella1, Ekaterina Shilova2, Sylvain Latil
1CEA Grenoble INAC/SPrAM UMR 5819 CEA - CNRS - Univ. J. Fourier-Grenoble 1, LEMOH, 17 Rue des Martyrs, 38054 Grenoble Cedex 9, Grenoble, France.
Abstract:
The conformation and the two-dimensional self-assembly of 4'-(3',4″-dihexyloxy-5,2':5',2″:5″,2‴-quaterthien-2,5‴-diyl)-bis(2,2':6',2″-terpyridine) molecules are theoretically and experimentally investigated. This molecular building block forms a hydrogen-bonded chiral supramolecular nanoarchitecture on graphite at the solid/liquid interface. Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) shows that the molecule adopts an S-shaped conformation in this structure. DFTB+ calculations reveal that this conformation is not the lowest-energy conformation. The molecular nanoarchitecture appears to be stabilized by hydrogen bonding as well as van der Waals interactions. I-, L-, and D-shaped molecular conformations are, however, locally observed at the domain boundary, but these conformations do not self-assemble into organized 2D structures.
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