Advertisement

If you have an ACS member number, please enter it here so we can link this account to your membership. (optional)

ACS values your privacy. By submitting your information, you are gaining access to C&EN and subscribing to our weekly newsletter. We use the information you provide to make your reading experience better, and we will never sell your data to third party members.

ENJOY UNLIMITED ACCES TO C&EN

Materials

Self-Assembling Ferrocene Complex Spawns Quasicrystals

Organometallic pentamers could serve as building blocks for supramolecular structures useful in materials applications

by Jyllian Kemsley
March 10, 2014 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 92, Issue 10

[+]Enlarge
Credit: Nature
This STM image of a ferrocenecarboxylic acid monolayer is superimposed with structures of its pentamer building blocks (Fe = yellow, C = gray, O = red, and H = white).
This is a scanning tunneling micrograph of a ferrocene carboxylic acid monolayer, with molecular structures superimposed.
Credit: Nature
This STM image of a ferrocenecarboxylic acid monolayer is superimposed with structures of its pentamer building blocks (Fe = yellow, C = gray, O = red, and H = white).

Quasicrystals are a class of ordered materials that may have symmetrical structures but lack periodicity, which means their structures don’t repeat at set intervals. Known quasicrystalline materials include metal alloys, polymers, liquid crystals, and inorganic nanoparticles. Self-assembled monolayers of organometallic compounds can also lead to quasicrystalline structures, reports a group led by S. Alex Kandel of the University of Notre Dame (Nature 2014, DOI: 10.1038/nature12993). Kandel and colleagues studied ferrocenecarboxylic acid, a sandwich compound in which an Fe2+ ion floats between two cyclopentadiene rings, one of which has a carboxylic acid group attached. The molecules assemble into pentamers held together in the center by hydrogen bonds among the carboxylic acid groups, with the cyclopentadiene rings aligned with the pentamer’s plane. Lining the sides of the pentamers are five additional pairs of molecules, also connected through their carboxylic acid groups but with their rings perpendicular to the pentamer. The pentamers could serve as building blocks for supramolecular assemblies used in materials applications in which the structures are controlled by additional functionalization of the cyclopentadiene rings, the researchers suggest.

Article:

This article has been sent to the following recipient:

0 /1 FREE ARTICLES LEFT THIS MONTH Remaining
Chemistry matters. Join us to get the news you need.