Ionic Self-Assembled Wormlike Nanowires and Their Cyclodextrin Inclusion-Tuned Transition

Wormlike nanowires have been successfully prepared via the ionic self-assembly (ISA) route from the cationic (ferrocenylmethyl)trimethylammonium iodide (FcMI) and the anionic sodium bis(2-ethyl-1-hexyl)sulfosuccinate (AOT). The formed FcM-AOT complexes have been proved to possess a composition of equal molar ratio and show good redox activity also due to the introduction of organic metal ferrocene. These complexes exhibit an ordered hexagonal columnar structure with the lattice spacing D of 2.49 nm. More interestingly, the wormlike nanowires interweave themselves together to form a net-like structure, and some of them are large enough to exhibit a high-order crystal structure. In addition, such an ISA organized aggregate can be changed into vesicles by including the Fe blocks into beta-cyclodextrins to form another supramolecular complex. The supramolecular structure and morphology of the vesicles were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and dynamic light scattering (DLS), respectively. Both the complex fabrication and transition mechanisms are discussed and found to be controlled by the inclusion equilibrium and the cooperative binding of noncovalent interactions, including the electrostatic interactions, pi-pi stacking, and amphiphilic hydrophobic association.