title: Self-Assembly of One-Dimensional Nanocrystal Superlattice Chains Mediated by Molecular Clusters.
abstract: Self-assembly of nanocrystal (NC) building blocks into mesoscopic superstructures with well-defined symmetry and geometry is essential for creating new materials with rationally designed properties. Despite the tremendous progress in colloidal assembly, it remains a fundamental challenge to assemble isotropic spherical NCs into one-dimensional (1D) ordered superstructures. Here, we report a new and general methodology that utilizes molecular clusters to induce the anisotropic assembly of NCs in solution, yielding polymer-like, single-NC-wide linear chains comprising as many as ∼1000 close-packed NCs. This cluster-assisted assembly process is applicable to various metallic, semiconductor, and magnetic NCs of different sizes and shapes. Mechanistic investigation reveals that the solvent-induced association of clusters plays a key role in driving the anisotropic assembly of NCs. Our work opens a solution-based route for linearly assembling NCs and represents an important step toward the bottom-up construction of 1D ordered NC superstructures.
authors.affiliation: Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, and Department of Chemistry and ‡State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers and Department of Macromolecular Science, Fudan University , Shanghai 200433, China.
authors.forename: Xianfeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, and Department of Chemistry and ‡State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers and Department of Macromolecular Science, Fudan University , Shanghai 200433, China.
authors.forename: Longfei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lv
authors.affiliation: Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, and Department of Chemistry and ‡State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers and Department of Macromolecular Science, Fudan University , Shanghai 200433, China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.affiliation: Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, and Department of Chemistry and ‡State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers and Department of Macromolecular Science, Fudan University , Shanghai 200433, China.
authors.forename: Guannan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, and Department of Chemistry and ‡State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers and Department of Macromolecular Science, Fudan University , Shanghai 200433, China.
authors.forename: Limin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, and Department of Chemistry and ‡State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers and Department of Macromolecular Science, Fudan University , Shanghai 200433, China.
authors.forename: Dandan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, and Department of Chemistry and ‡State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers and Department of Macromolecular Science, Fudan University , Shanghai 200433, China.
authors.forename: Biwei
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, and Department of Chemistry and ‡State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers and Department of Macromolecular Science, Fudan University , Shanghai 200433, China.
authors.forename: Yaqi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tu
authors.affiliation: Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, and Department of Chemistry and ‡State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers and Department of Macromolecular Science, Fudan University , Shanghai 200433, China.
authors.forename: Jianhua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, and Department of Chemistry and ‡State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers and Department of Macromolecular Science, Fudan University , Shanghai 200433, China.
authors.forename: Dong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, and Department of Chemistry and ‡State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers and Department of Macromolecular Science, Fudan University , Shanghai 200433, China.
authors.forename: Angang
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dong