Davide Bonifazi: "From the Bulk to the Interfaces: the Supramolecular Route towards Nanostructured Organic Materials"

Professor Davide Bonifazi
Department of Chemistry, University of Namur, Belgium; Dip. di Scienza Farmaceutiche and INSTM UdR Trieste, Italy

From the Bulk to the Interfaces: the Supramolecular Route towards Nanostructured Organic Materials

Supramolecular multicomponent architectures confined at interfaces are ultimate candidates for the fabrication of advanced molecular-based devices. Ideally, in order to exploit single-molecule devices, it is necessary to develop systems that can form highly organized two-dimensional molecular assemblies featuring controllable and precise structural arrangements. Towards the envisaged technological applications, the hierarchical self-assembly of molecular modules featuring non-covalent recognition sites reveals to be one of the most feasible approaches since it allows the simultaneous assembly of several programmed molecules, long-range order and inherently defect-free structures.Herein we describe the design, synthesis and supramolecular ordering of a molecular library consisting of different geometrical molecular modules that, by establishing complementary intermolecular weak interactions, can generate ordered mono- and bi-dimensional nanostructures.As expected, self-assembly studies conducted both in solution and on surfaces confirm that the overall formation of the supramolecular systems is driven by the strong hydrogen bonding interactions established between the complementary recognition sites and by the geometrical molecular constrains.