Supramolecular Assembly of Defined Polymer Nanoobjects

✍ Scribed by Krystyna Albrecht; Marat Gallyamov; Xiaomin Zhu; Martin Moeller

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 342 KB
• Volume: 208
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1022-1352
• DOI: 10.1002/macp.200700141

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The visualization of well defined supramacromolecules that are formed by poly(4‐vinylpyridine) (P4VP) partially neutralized with wedge‐shaped amphiphilic sulfonic acid molecules is reported. Molecules are depicted as deposited on highly ordered pyrolitic graphite (HOPG) by means of atomic force microscopy. Three P4VP polymers with different, uniform molecular weights were employed to prepare the complexes. Individual supramacromolecules have been observed consisting of polyvinylpyridine backbones wrapped by the noncovalently bound sulfonic acid groups. The length of the supramacromolecules is controlled by the length of the core P4VP chains. The complexes display a strictly defined orientation with respect to the 6‐fold symmetry of the HOPG substrate that is caused by the epitaxial adsorption of side alkyl chains that also enables the visualization of these single molecules.

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