A polyhedral supramolecular system of endocyclic crystalline organic nanostructures: the case of triptycenes

Controlled synthesis of polyhedral crystals has acquired intense attention over the past few years due to their potential electrical and optical properties and special functionalities for integrated devices. In this work, endocyclic molecules of triptycene are self-assembled into pretty uniform polyhedra of quasi-decahedra and well-defined nanosheets via the assistance of P123 and CTAB, respectively. These nanostructures have been clearly investigated by using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and selected area electron diffraction (SAED) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns. The aromatic multi-plane triptycene molecules exhibit a definite three-dimensional assembly tendency and the assembly process can also be effectively tuned by surfactants. The above results are invaluable to the design of polyhedron supramolecular synthons and go forward through simulation as well as morphology control to certain promising nanoscale structures.