The challenge of construction of functional hierarchical architectures over multiple length scales is a current theme at the frontier of research into electroactive and conjugated materials. We have extensively exploited the use of electrostatic interactions in our ionic self-assembly (ISA) route over the last decade in pursuit of this goal.[1, 2]
In order to achieve a combination of functionality and hierarchical order, we have turned our attention to the design and synthesis of oligo(aniline)s.[3] We have shown that through the preparation of well-defined, processable and functional moieties it is possible to produce conjugated surfactants, highly ordered electroactive nanostructured thin films,[4] microcapsules[5] and 3D porous conjugated materials for CO2 capture.[6]
We are now exploring new routes to exert control over structure formation using non-covalent interactions, tuneable volume fractions and mutual compatibility.[7] These approaches provide opportunities to develop design principles for construction from sub-monolayers to 3D constructs – recent results towards obtaining such structures will be discussed.
References: 1) Faul, C. F. J., Ionic Self-Assembly for Functional Hierarchical Nanostructured Materials. Acc. Chem. Res. 2014, 47, 3428 – 3438 2) Houbenov, N.; Haataja, J. S.; Iatrou, H.; Hadjichristidis, N.; Ruokolainen, J.; Faul, C. F. J.; Ikkala, O., Self-Assembled Polymeric Supramolecular Frameworks. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2011, 50, 2516-2520. 3) Shao, Z. C.; Rannou, P.; Sadki, S.; Fey, N.; Lindsay, D. M.; Faul, C.
F. J., Delineating Poly(Aniline) Redox Chemistry using Tailored Oligo(Aryleneamine)s: Towards Oligo(Aniline)-based Organic Semiconductors with Tunable Optoelectronic Properties. Chem. Eur. J. 2011, 17, 12512-12521. 4) Dane, T. G.; Cresswell, P. T.; Pilkington, G. A.; Lilliu, S.; Macdonald, J. E.; Prescott, S. W.; Bikondoa, O.; Faul, C. F. J.; Briscoe, W. H., Oligo(aniline) nanofilms: from molecular architecture to microstructure. Soft Matter 2013, 9, 10501 - 10511. 5) Lv, W.; Feng, J.; Yan, W.; Faul, C. F. J., Self-assembly of Electroactive Liquid Core – Tetra(aniline) Shell Microcapsules with pH Response. J. Mater. Chem. B 2014, 2, 4720 -4725. 6) Liao, Y.; Weber, J.; Faul, C. F. J., Conjugated microporous polytriphenylamine networks. Chem. Commun. 2014, 50, 8002 - 8005. 7) Ahmed, R.; Patra, S. K.; Hamley, I. W.; Manners, I.; Faul, C. F. J., Tetragonal and Helical Morphologies from Polyferrocenylsilane Block Polyelectrolytes via Ionic Self-Assembly. J. Am. Chem. Soc 2013, 135, 2455-2458.