Intra- and Intermolecular Self-Assembly of a 20-nm-Wide Supramolecular Hexagonal Grid.

Journal Article · Fri May 01 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · Nature Chemistry

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-020-0454-z· OSTI ID:1633310

Zhang, Zhe; Li, Yiming; Song, Bo; Zhang, Yuan; Jiang, Xin; Wang, Ming; Tumbleson, Ryan; Liu, Changlin; Wang, Pingshan; Hao, Xin-Qi; Rojas, Tomas; Ngo, Anh T.

For the past three decades, the coordination-driven self-assembly of three-dimensional structures has undergone rapid progress; however, parallel efforts to create large discrete two-dimensional architectures-as opposed to polymers-have met with limited success. The synthesis of metallo-supramolecular systems with well-defined shapes and sizes in the range of 10-100 nm remains challenging. Here we report the construction of a series of giant supramolecular hexagonal grids, with diameters on the order of 20 nm and molecular weights greater than 65 kDa, through a combination of intra- and intermolecular metal-mediated self-assembly steps. The hexagonal intermediates and the resulting self-assembled grid architectures were imaged at submolecular resolution by scanning tunnelling microscopy. Characterization (including by scanning tunnelling spectroscopy) enabled the unambiguous atomic-scale determination of fourteen hexagonal grid isomers.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: U. S. Department of Health and Human Services; National Institutes of Health (NIH); USDOE Office of Science - Office of Basic Energy Sciences - Materials Sciences and Engineering Division; Shanghai University; National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-06CH11357
• OSTI ID: 1633310
• Journal Information: Nature Chemistry, Vol. 12, Issue 5
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English