Optimizing the Number of Components in a Molecular Quasicrystal: A Three-Component Material Based on the Penrose Tiling

Abstract

We report the design of a new quasicrystalline material constructed from discrete molecular building units and based on the Penrose tiling as the basic structural template. The quasicrystal comprises three different molecular components, which is shown to represent the minimum number of components required for a molecular representation of the Penrose tiling. The density of this molecular quasicrystal is comparable to typical densities of crystalline organic materials. With regard to both the number of molecular components and density, the experimental realization of the molecular quasicrystal reported in this paper is considerably more promising than a seven-component, low-density representation of the Penrose tiling that represents the only previous reported example of a molecular quasicrystal.