Issue 4, 2015

Highly bent crystals formed by restrained π-stacked columns connected via alkylene linkers with variable conformations

Abstract

A reproducible formation of strongly bent crystals was accomplished by structurally restraining macrocyclic π-conjugated molecules. The model π-units consist of two 9,10-bis(2-thienylethynyl)anthracenes with a strong propensity for stacking, which are connected in a macrocyclic fashion via two alkylene linkers. The correlation between the crystalline morphology and the macrocyclic structures restrained by a variety of flexible alkylene linker combinations was systematically studied. Bent crystals were obtained only with specific alkylene linkers of appropriate chain length. The alkylene linkers can adopt different conformations in the crystal packing, so as to fill voids within the macrocycle. The ability to form several similar molecular structures with different alkylene conformations gives rise to contaminations of different crystalline phases within a single crystal, and it is these phase contaminations which are responsible for the bending of the crystals.

Graphical abstract: Highly bent crystals formed by restrained π-stacked columns connected via alkylene linkers with variable conformations

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
12 Dec 2014
Accepted
31 Jan 2015
First published
03 Feb 2015
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2015,6, 2354-2359

Highly bent crystals formed by restrained π-stacked columns connected via alkylene linkers with variable conformations

C. Chou, S. Nobusue, S. Saito, D. Inoue, D. Hashizume and S. Yamaguchi, Chem. Sci., 2015, 6, 2354 DOI: 10.1039/C4SC03849E

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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