Mechanical Stiffening of Porphyrin Nanorings through Supramolecular Columnar Stacking

• DOI: 10.1021/nl4017557
• Publication Date: 2013-06-21T15:16:25Z
• Authors: Simon A. Svatek; Luis M. A. Perdigão; Andrew Stannard; Maria B. Wieland; Dmitry V. Kondratuk; Harry L. Anderson; James N. O’Shea; Peter H. Beton
• Keywords: Nanoring

Solvent-induced aggregates of nanoring cyclic polymers may be transferred by electrospray deposition to a surface where they adsorb as three-dimensional columnar stacks. The observed stack height varies from single rings four stacked with layer spacing 0.32 ± 0.04 nm measured using scanning tunneling microscopy. flexibility the nanorings results in distortions circular shape, and we show, through comparison Monte Carlo simulations, that bending stiffness increases linearly height. Our show noncovalent interactions used control shape mechanical properties artificial macromolecular offering new route solvent-induced two-dimensional supramolecular organization.