Co-assembled twisted superstructures formed by disc-bent core amphiphiles
Kehua Gu,
Weilu Yang,
Tao Wen,
Qian Wang,
Wei Zhang,
Mengying Han,
Zhihao Shen,
Xinghe Fan,
Rong-Ming Ho
Affiliations
Kehua Gu
Beijing 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
Weilu Yang
Beijing 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
Tao Wen
Department of Chemical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan
Qian Wang
Beijing 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
Wei Zhang
Beijing 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
Mengying Han
Beijing 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
Zhihao Shen
Beijing 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; Corresponding author.
Xinghe Fan
Beijing 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
Rong-Ming Ho
Department of Chemical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan
Herein, two asymmetric chiral disc-bent core amphiphiles containing hexa‑peri-hexabenzocoronene (HBC), R-HBC-BC and S-HBC-BC, were synthesized to study the effects of chiral alkyl chain on the self-assembly of the disc-bent core amphiphiles. Interestingly, instead of forming chiral superstructure, pure R-HBC-BC or S-HBC-BC self-assembled into irregular crystalline texture resulting from the introduction of the chiral alkyl chains. Surprisingly, the formation of helical superstructure can be achieved by co-assembling the chiral disc-bent core amphiphile with achiral HBC-BC, with twisted superstructures having saddle-like curvature observed, which was different from the conventional spiral superstructures. The shape effect on the chirality transfer mechanism from molecule to hierarchical superstructure was thus proposed based on structural analysis of the twisted superstructures. Such interesting morphological transitions among different self-assembled helical morphologies in thin film may provide new insights for the self-assembly of chiral supramolecules.
