Programmed Hierarchical Hybrid Nanostructures from Fullerene-Dendrons and Pyrene-Dendrons.

The construction of fullerene (C ) hierarchical nanostructures with the help of amphiphilic molecules remains a challenging task in nanoscience and nanotechnology. Utilizing the host-guest complex concept, sub-10 nm layered superstructures are constructed from a monofunctionalized C dendron (C D, guest) and tweezer-like pyrene dendron (PD, host). Since C D and PD are asymmetric shape amphiphiles having liquid crystal (LC) dendrons, both C D and PD construct head-to-head bilayer superstructures by themselves. From fluorescence titration experiments, it is realized that the host-guest complex shows 1:1 stoichiometric binding with a binding constant (K = 2.45 × 10 m ). Based on the morphological observations and scattering analyses, it is found that buckle-like asymmetric building blocks (C D·PD) are self-assembled by the host-guest complex and construct multilayer hybrid nanostructures. The hierarchical hybrid nanostructures consist of the self-assembled C D·PD bilayer with a 2D C ·P nanoarray sandwiched between LC dendrons. This advanced strategy is expected to be a practicable and rational guideline for the fabrication of programmed hierarchical hybrid nanostructures.