Synthesis and Self-Assembly of Silver Ion Derived Hexapyridylbenzene

Supramolecular materials can be tailored from precisely designed small molecules by bottom-up approach under the control of directional noncovalent interactions. Here, the self-assembled metal structures are composed of numerous, highly conjugated and ordered Ag-pyridine units, and are expected to incorporate proton donors to form coordination complexes through Ag-N bond interactions. The morphologies and structures of self-assemblies play an important roles in define their properties and applications. In this work, we found that silver ion can induce thiophene decorated disk-shaped hexapyridylbenzene (THPB) derivatives to hierarchically self-assemble to give crystalline nanoobjects AgE, Ag2E and Ag3E in solution. Besides, it is found that the silver coordination self-assembly product gradually changes from hexagonal shape into a disk shape.