Macromolecules, Vol.53, No.14, 6056-6062, 2020
Hierarchical Structure with an Unusual Honeycomb Fullerene Scaffold by a Fullerene-Triphenylene Shape Amphiphile
Shape amphiphiles are a class of molecules, which contain distinct shapes of building blocks with competing interactions. The building blocks in one molecule are forced connected through chemical bonds, resulting in competition and cooperation of interactions and packings, which leads to interesting assembled structures. In this work, we have designed and synthesized sphere-triangle shape amphiphiles composed of C-60 and triphenylene (C-60 - TP). C-60 - TP exhibits a hexagonal lattice with unit cell parameters of a = b = 1.98 nm, c = 4.52 nm, and gamma = 120 degrees. Also, for the first time, we demonstrated a three-dimensional layered structure with novel honeycomb C-60 scaffolds. The coordination number of C-60 in the hexagonal lattice plane is tuned to be four, instead of six in a traditional hexagonal close packing. This new type of hexagonal nonclose packing formed by the spatial packing effect of TP moiety could provide general implications for tuning symmetry in hierarchical structures.