title: Supramolecular architectures from bent-core dendritic molecules.
abstract: Control of the self-assembly of small molecules to generate architectures with diverse shapes and dimensions is a challenging research field. We report unprecedented results on the ability of ionic, bent dendritic molecules to aggregate in water. A range of analytical techniques (TEM, SEM, SAED, and XRD) provide evidence of the formation of rods, spheres, fibers, helical ribbons, or tubules from achiral molecules. The compact packing of the bent-core structures, which promotes the bent-core mesophases, also occurs in the presence of a poor solvent to provide products ranging from single objects to supramolecular gels. The subtle balance of molecule/solvent interactions and appropriate molecular designs also allows the transfer of molecular conformational chirality to morphological chirality in the overall superstructure. Functional motifs and controlled morphologies can be combined, thereby opening up new prospects for the generation of nanostructured materials through a bottom-up strategy.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Aragón, Departamento de Química Orgánica. Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Zaragoza-CSIC, Campus San Francisco. 50009-Zaragoza (Spain).
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cano
authors.forename: Antoni
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sánchez-Ferrer
authors.forename: José Luis
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Serrano
authors.forename: Nélida
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Gimeno
authors.forename: M Blanca
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Ros
mesh_terms: D050091:Dendrimers / Q000737:chemistry*; D005782:Gels / Q000737:chemistry; D007477:Ions / Q000737:chemistry; D050866:Liquid Crystals / Q000737:chemistry*; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D013237:Stereoisomerism; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D050091:Dendrimers; D005782:Gels; D007477:Ions; D014867:Water
keywords: chirality transfer; ionic dendrimers; liquid crystals; self-assembly; supramolecular chemistry