Issue 71, 2017

Thermo-mechanically responsive crystalline organic cantilever

Abstract

We report thermo-mechanically responsive and thermochromic behavior in the single crystalline organic semiconductor butoxyphenyl N-substituted naphthalene diimide (BNDI). We show that initially monoclinic single crystals of BNDI undergo a single-crystal to single-crystal transition to a triclinic phase. This transition accompanies large changes in the crystal packing, a visible decrease in crystal size, reversible thermochromic behavior, and motion including bending, jumping, and splitting. We have shown that by fixing single crystals to a surface, we can harness the energy of the phase transition to create a single crystal cantilever capable of lifting weights with masses nigh two orders of magnitude heavier than the single crystal itself.

Graphical abstract: Thermo-mechanically responsive crystalline organic cantilever

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
05 Jun 2017
Accepted
10 Aug 2017
First published
21 Aug 2017

Chem. Commun., 2017,53, 9890-9893

Thermo-mechanically responsive crystalline organic cantilever

M. Dharmarwardana, R. P. Welch, S. Kwon, V. K. Nguyen, G. T. McCandless, M. A. Omary and J. J. Gassensmith, Chem. Commun., 2017, 53, 9890 DOI: 10.1039/C7CC04346E

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