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Published on: May 1, 2020
SMART Design of a Bulk-Capped Supramolecular Segment for the Assembly into Organic Interdigital Lipid Bilayer-Like
Yin-Xiang Li1, Sha-Sha Wang1, Yang Yu1
1Centre for Molecular Systems and Organic Devices (CMSOD), Key Laboratory for Organic Electronics and Information Displays and Institute of Advanced Materials (IAM), Jiangsu National Synergetic Innovation Center for Advanced Materials (SICAM), Nanjing University of Posts & Telecommunications, 9 Wenyuan Road, Nanjing, 210023, P. R. China.
Abstract:
Rational molecular design for the organic nanocrystal morphology still remains a challenge due to the structural diversity and complicated weak intermolecular interactions. In this work, a typical attractor-repulsor molecule N,N-diphenyl-4-(9-phenyl-fluoren-9-yl) phenylamine (TPA-PF) is designed to explore a general assembly strategy for 2D nanocrystals. Via an interdigital lipid bilayer-like (ILB) molecular packing mode, large-sized lamellar 2D nanosheets are obtained with a length:width:thickness ratio as ≈2500:1000:1. The d-spacing of the largest (001) plane is 1.32 nm, which equals to the thickness of a single interdigital stacking layer. The synergetic effect of the attractive supramolecular segment (TPA) and the repulsive bulky group (PF) is supposed to be the critical factor for the ILB packing that leads to the 2D structures. The attractor-repulsor molecule design is expected to be an effective strategy for the growth of 2D nanocrystals based on small organic molecules.
