Morphology-controlled self-assembled nanostructures of octa(phenoxy)-substituted phthalocyaninato manganese(III) and their nonlinear optical properties: Solvent effect on tuning the intermolecular interaction

Two different morphological nanostructures of 2,3,9,10,16,17,23,24- octakis(phenoxy) phthalocyaninato manganese(III) complex (MnCl[Pc(OPh)(8)]), with good uniformity and monodispersity, are successfully fabricated through a simple solution self-assembly strategy. Depending mainly on the intermolecular pi-pi interaction between the phthalocyanine rings, phthalocyaninato manganese complex self-assemble into rod-like nanostructures with H-type aggregation in n-hexane. In contrast, the Mn-O coordination interactions between the hydroxyl oxygen in solvated methanol molecule and manganese center of neighboring MnCl[Pc(OPh)(8)] molecule, lead to the formation of spherical nanostructures with J-type aggregation in methanol. Comparative investigation results clearly reveal the solvent coordination effect on tuning the intermolecular interaction and the morphology of the self-assembled MnCl[Pc(OPh)(8)] nanostructures. In addition, further investigation about the nonlinear optical properties of self-assembled aggregates indicate that the nanostructures fabricated from MnCl[Pc(OPh)(8)] exhibited reverse saturation absorption in n-hexane and saturation absorption in methanol.