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Updated: Feb 27, 2026

Self-assembling Morphologies Obtained from Helical Polycarbodiimide Copolymers and Their Triazole Derivatives
Published on: February 7, 2017
Diketopyrrolopyrrole Columnar Liquid-Crystalline Assembly Directed by Quadruple Hydrogen Bonds
Bartolome Soberats1, Markus Hecht2, Frank Würthner1,2
1Center for Nanosystems Chemistry (CNC) & Bavarian Polymer Institute (BPI), Universität Würzburg, Theodor-Boveri-Weg, 97074, Würzburg, Germany.
Abstract:
A diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) dye self-assembles via a unique hydrogen-bonding motif into an unprecedented columnar liquid-crystalline (LC) structure. X-ray and polarized FTIR experiments reveal that the DPPs organize into a one-dimensional assembly with the chromophores oriented parallel to the columnar axis. This columnar structure is composed of two π-π-stacked DPP dimers with mirror-image configurations that stack alternately through quadruple hydrogen bonding by 90° rotation. This exotic packing is dictated by the complementarity between H-bonds and the steric demands of the wedge-shaped groups attached at the core. This novel LC supramolecular material opens a new avenue of research on DPP dye assemblies with photofunctional properties tailored by H-bonding networks.
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