Discrete Supracrystalline Heterostructures from Integrative Assembly of Nanocrystals and Porous Organic Cages.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 32374985.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1021/acsnano.9b09686.
- No licence information is recorded for this record.
- Because redistribution is not established, this page shows the abstract only. Follow the links below for the full text.
Abstract
Although self-assembly across multiple length scales has been well recognized and intensively investigated in natural biological system, the design of artificial heterostructures enabled by integrative self-assembly is still in its infancy. Here we report a strategy toward the growth of discrete supracrystalline heterostructures from inorganic nanocrystals and porous organic cages (<b>CC3-</b><i>R</i>), which in principle relies on the host-guest interactions between alkyl chains coated on nanocrystals and the cavity of cage molecules. Density functional theory calculation indicates that an attractive energy of ∼-2 <i>k</i><sub>B</sub>T is present between an alkyl chain and the cavity of a <b>CC3-</b><i>R</i> molecule, which is responsible for the assembly of nanocrystal superlattices on the <b>CC3-</b><i>R</i> octahedral crystals. Of particular interest is that, determined by the shape of the nanocrystals, two distinct assembly modes can be controlled at the mesoscale level, which eventually produce either a core/shell or heterodimer supracrystalline structure. Our results highlight opportunities for the development of such a noncovalent integrative self-assembly not limited to a particular length scale and that could be generally applicable for flexible integration of supramolecular systems.