Evaporation-induced self-assembly of trans-2-aminocyclopentanecarboxylic acid hexamers

Abstract

In this paper, we report the self-assembly phenomenon of trans-2-aminocyclopentanecarboxylic acid hexamer (ACPC(6)) by the evaporation-induced self-assembly. The SEM and TEM analyses of the self-assembled 3D molecular architecture revealed the characteristic shape of hollow parallelepiped and its supramolecular chiral expression on surface. A systematic study with the derivatives of ACPC(6) showed the effect of the terminal groups of ACPC(6) on the particular 3D shape formation. We also found that water molecules played a crucial role in the formation of hollow morphogenesis under the evaporation-induced self-assembly condition, and a plausible formation mechanism was suggested. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.