Institute of Environmental Research at Greater Bay Area; Key Laboratory for Water Quality and Conservation of the Pearl River Delta, Ministry of Education; Guangzhou Key Laboratory for Clean Energy and Materials, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou-510006, China
Die Liu
Institute of Environmental Research at Greater Bay Area; Key Laboratory for Water Quality and Conservation of the Pearl River Delta, Ministry of Education; Guangzhou Key Laboratory for Clean Energy and Materials, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou-510006, China
Mingzhao Chen
Institute of Environmental Research at Greater Bay Area; Key Laboratory for Water Quality and Conservation of the Pearl River Delta, Ministry of Education; Guangzhou Key Laboratory for Clean Energy and Materials, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou-510006, China; Corresponding author
Jun Wang
Hunan Key Laboratory of Micro & Nano Materials Interface Science; College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan-410083, China
He Zhao
Hunan Key Laboratory of Micro & Nano Materials Interface Science; College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan-410083, China
Yiming Li
Department of Chemistry, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, USA
Zhe Zhang
Institute of Environmental Research at Greater Bay Area; Key Laboratory for Water Quality and Conservation of the Pearl River Delta, Ministry of Education; Guangzhou Key Laboratory for Clean Energy and Materials, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou-510006, China
Tingzheng Xie
Institute of Environmental Research at Greater Bay Area; Key Laboratory for Water Quality and Conservation of the Pearl River Delta, Ministry of Education; Guangzhou Key Laboratory for Clean Energy and Materials, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou-510006, China
Feng Wang
Hunan Key Laboratory of Micro & Nano Materials Interface Science; College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan-410083, China
Xiaopeng Li
Department of Chemistry, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, USA
George R. Newkome
Center for Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Florida Atlantic University, Jupiter, FL 33428, USA; Corresponding author
Pingshan Wang
Institute of Environmental Research at Greater Bay Area; Key Laboratory for Water Quality and Conservation of the Pearl River Delta, Ministry of Education; Guangzhou Key Laboratory for Clean Energy and Materials, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou-510006, China; Hunan Key Laboratory of Micro & Nano Materials Interface Science; College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan-410083, China; Corresponding author
Summary: Fractals are a series of intricate patterns with aesthetic, mathematic, and philosophic significance. The Sierpiński triangles have been known for more than one hundred years, but only recently discrete shape-persistent low-generation (mainly ST-1) fractal supramolecules have been realized. Herein, we report a retro-assembly pathway to the nanometer-scale, supra-macromolecular second-generation Sierpiński triangle and its third-generation saturated counterpart (Pascal's triangle). These gigantic triangular assemblies are unambiguously confirmed by NMR, DOSY, ESI-MS, TWIM-MS, TEM, and AFM analyses. Notably, the dense-packed counterions of these discrete triangular architectures could further form supramolecular hydro-gels in water. This work not only provides a fundamental chemical pathway to explore various giant supramolecular constructs and further overcome the synthetic limitation of complicated molecular fractals, but also presents a new type of supramolecular hydro-gels with potential in controlled release applications.
