Chiral Interfacial Assembly of a Trigonal Schiff Base Compound with TPPS in Organized Molecular Films

Abstract

In order to investigate the chiral interfacial assembly of special amphiphile, a trigonal Schiff base compound with long alkyl chains was designed and synthesized, and its supramolecular assembly and interaction properties were investigated by spectral and morphological measurements. Condensed monolayers were obtained on pure water surface, in which flat and uniform domains were obtained for the monolayers. When an anionic tetrakis(4-sulfonatonphenyl)porphine (TPPS) was added into an acidic subphase, an in situ complex formation between the trigonal amphiphile and TPPS occurred. The complex monolayers were transferred onto solid substrate and TPPS existed as J-aggregate and J-aggregate in the complex films. Due to the multisited positive charges in the spacer on acidic subphase, the complex films of trigonal amphiphile with TPPS appeared as short nanorod structures and formed two-dimensional (2D) conglomerate chiral domains.