The precise synthesis of one-dimensional (1D) nanowires with accurate spatial organisation have received wide attention for its fundamental scientific understandings and industrial applications.To date, the fine synthesis of inorganic or metal nanowires has significantly achieved the precise control of structure, size, and components using various methodologies and mechanisms.Notably, complex micro/nanostructures generally demonstrate superior physical/chemistry properties, which render them promising candidates for high-performance optoelectronic applications.In contrast, the fine synthesis of complex micro/nanostructures with dissimilar components/substructures presents greater challenges, which must be overcome to meet practical nanotechnology requirements.Recently, organic semiconductor micro/nanostructures have become a hot topic because of the variety and flexibility of their molecular design and synthesis, tuned physical/chemical properties, and low-cost large area fabrication.However, notably, organic micro/nanostructures, particularly organic superstructure nanowires composed of dissimilar materials and hierarchical structures, have been rarely developed by currently-investigated material systems. The difficult manipulation of the homogeneous/heterogeneous nucleation process and the complex epitaxial relationships of different material combinations are barriers that need to be overcome for the precise construction of organic superstructure nanowires. Additionally, the manipulation of spatial homogeneous/heterogeneous nucleation is a feasible and versatile but underdeveloped strategy for the construction of organic superstructure nanowires in the elaborate regulation of the fine structure/component.
Recently, Prof. Liang-Sheng Liao, Associate Prof. Xue-Dong Wang and coworkers have proposed a hierarchical epitaxial-growth approach with the combination of longitudinal and horizontal epitaxial-growth modes for the design and synthesis of a variety of organic superstructure microwires with accurate spatial organisation by regulating the heterogeneous-nucleation. crystallisation process. The lattice-matched longitudinal and horizontal epitaxial-growth modes are separately employed to construct the primary organic core/shell and segmented heterostructure microwires. Rational regulation of the component supersaturation was used to construct segmented microwires with precise modulation of either the block number or the length ratio via the longitudinal epitaxial-growth mode based on anisotropic lattice energy and intermolecular interaction. Furthermore, by adjusting the experimental conditions of the species or the order in which the materials were added, the organic superstructure microwires were precisely constructed by combining the multiple spatial epitaxial growth modes. Significantly, owing to anisotropic optical characteristics, these as-prepared organic superstructure microwires were employed for luminescent encoding/decoding and nanoscale multiple input/output optical logic gate. This proposed strategy provides new insight into the precise construction of organic superstructure microwires with hierarchical heterostructures and desired spatial configurations.This work is published inNature Communicationswith the title “Organic superstructure microwires with hierarchical spatial organisation”.
The first author is Dr. Ming-Peng Zhuo, one of the postdoctors in the Prof. Liao,s group.
Link to Paper:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-22513-5
Link to Prof. Liao,s group:http://www.funsom.com/
Acknowledgements:This work is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (nos. 21703148 and 21971185), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (no. BK20170330), the National Postdoctoral Program for Innovative Talents (no. BX20190228), Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology (CIC-Nano), the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD), and the “111” Project of the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs of China.
Editor: Danting Xiang