Synthesis and Self-Assembly of Chiral Cylindrical Molecular Complexes: Functional Heterogeneous Liquid-Solid Materials Formed by Helicene Oligomers

• Main Authors: Nozomi Saito, Masahiko Yamaguchi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2018-01-01
• Series: Molecules
• Subjects: cylindrical; double-helix; helicene oligomers; self-assembly; heterogeneous liquid-solid; molecular complex
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/23/2/277

Chiral cylindrical molecular complexes of homo- and hetero-double-helices derived from helicene oligomers self-assemble in solution, providing functional heterogeneous liquid-solid materials. Gels and liotropic liquid crystals are formed by fibril self-assembly in solution; molecular monolayers and fibril films are formed by self-assembly on solid surfaces; gels containing gold nanoparticles emit light; silica nanoparticles aggregate and adsorb double-helices. Notable dynamics appears during self-assembly, including multistep self-assembly, solid surface catalyzed double-helix formation, sigmoidal and stairwise kinetics, molecular recognition of nanoparticles, discontinuous self-assembly, materials clocking, chiral symmetry breaking and homogeneous-heterogeneous transitions. These phenomena are derived from strong intercomplex interactions of chiral cylindrical molecular complexes.