Abstract

Supramolecular polymer formed by non-covalent interactions between complementary building blocks entraps solvents and develops supramolecular polymer gel. A supramolecular polymer gel was prepared by the heating-cooling cycle of β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) and naphthalenedimide (NDI) solution in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF). The host-guest inclusion complex of β-CD and NDI 1 containing dodecyl amine forms the supramolecular polymer and gel in DMF. However, β-CD and NDI 2, having glutamic acid, fail to form the supramolecular polymer and gel under the same condition. X-ray crystallography shows that the alkyl chains of NDI 1 are complementary to the hydrophobic cavity of the two β-CD units. From rheology, the storage modulus was approximately 1.5 orders of magnitude larger than the loss modulus, which indicates the physical crosslink and elastic nature of the thermo-responsive gel. FE-SEM images of the supramolecular polymer gel exhibit flake-like morphology and a dense flake network. The flakes developed from the assembly of smaller rods. Photophysical studies show that the host-guest complex formation and gelation have significantly enhanced emission intensity with a new hump at 550 nm. Upon excitation by a 366 nm UV-light, NDI 1 and β-CD gel in DMF shows white light emission. The gel has the potential for the fabrication of organic electronic devices.

Highlights

  • Recognition, combination, and repeated arrays of complementary monomeric building blocks connected by highly directional and reversible non-covalent interactions yield supramolecular polymers [1,2,3]

  • We are looking for supramolecular polymers by molecular recognition, combination, and repeated arrays of complementary monomeric building blocks connected by reversible non-covalent interactions; we study the optical properties

  • The design principle behind this was to develop the supramolecular polymer by the host-guest inclusion complex of β-CD and chromophore NDI. β-CD is a macrocyclic oligosaccharide of seven glucose subunits connected by α-1,4 glycosidic bonds (Figure 1a)

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Summary

Introduction

Recognition, combination, and repeated arrays of complementary monomeric building blocks connected by highly directional and reversible non-covalent interactions yield supramolecular polymers [1,2,3]. Though there are many reports on supramolecular polymer gel [19], the fabrication of a supramolecular polymer and gel from π-conjugated semiconductor systems is still challenging due to their projected applications in photovoltaics, electronic device, organic light-emitting diodes and field-effect transistors. Due to their potential application in organic electronic devices, the developments of white-light-emitting organic materials are highly important [20,21,22,23]. We are looking for supramolecular polymers by reversible non-covalent interactions of chromophores and study the effect of the host-guest complex formation on optical properties. Upon excitation by a 366 nm UV-light, NDI 1 and β-CD gel in DMF shows white-light emission

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