title: Gathering nanorings via Fe(2+)-bipyridine coordination.
abstract: Spontaneously precise organization of small structures into complex superstructures is ubiquitous and important in nature. But using small building blocks to mimic this process remains a challenge to scientists. Herein, we report the rational design of a bipyridine-derivative and applied it for the self-assembly of nanorings. The addition of Fe(2+) to the nanorings resulted in the assembly of the nanorings into supernanostructures via Fe(2+)-bipyridine coordination. HPLC, HR-ESI/MS, UV-vis, DLS, and TEM analyses clearly validated the intramolecular cyclization, self-assembly of the nanorings, and the additional self-assembly of the superstructures via Fe(2+)-bipyridine coordination. We envision our strategy to be a new approach of precisely assembling nanostructures of ring shape into more complex superstructures.
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Soft Matter Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China, 96 Jinzhai Road, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China. gliang@ustc.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Qingqing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Miao
authors.forename: Chunying
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.forename: Maolin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Yufeng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Zijuan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Hai
authors.forename: Qingpan
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Gaolin
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Liang