Mechanism of Self-Assembly Process and Seeded Supramolecular Polymerization of Perylene Bisimide Organogelator
University of Würzburg · National Institute for Materials Science
Abstract
The mechanism of supramolecular polymerization has been elucidated for an archetype organogelator molecule composed of a perylene bisimide aromatic scaffold and two amide substituents. This molecule self-assembles into elongated one-dimensional nanofibers through a cooperative nucleation-growth process. Thermodynamic and kinetic analyses have been applied to discover conditions (temperature, solvent, concentration) where the spontaneous nucleation can be retarded by trapping of the monomers in an inactive conformation, leading to lag times up to more than 1 h. The unique kinetics in the nucleation process was confirmed as a thermal hysteresis in a cycle of assembly and disassembly processes. Under appropriate…
Citation impact
- FWCI
- 24.39
- Percentile
- 100%
- References
- 45
Authors
5Topics & keywords
- Chemistry
- Perylene
- Polymerization
- Supramolecular chemistry
- Mechanism (biology)
- Self-assembly
- Nanotechnology
- Chemical engineering