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Published on: August 2, 2012
Hierarchical Self-Assembly of Disc-Rod Shape Amphiphiles Having Hexa-peri-hexabenzocoronene and a Relatively Long Rod
Kehua Gu1, Mengyao Zhang1, Yu Zhou1
1Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Key Laboratory of Polymer Chemistry and Physics of Ministry of Education, Center for Soft Matter Science and Engineering, and College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University , Beijing 100871, China.
Abstract:
Two disc-rod shape amphiphiles consisting of hexa-peri-hexabenzocoronene (HBC) and a nanosized rodlike mesogen were designed and synthesized. Thermotropic phase behaviors were carefully studied. Despite significant steric mismatch between the discs and rods, hierarchical structures were observed for both disc-rod shape amphiphiles at ambient temperature and upon heating. Molecular packing schemes were proposed and confirmed using the reconstructed electron density maps, molecular dynamics simulation, and direct observation using transmission electron microscope. The results demonstrate that the shape effect is of great importance in the self-assembly of shape amphiphiles.
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