Submitted on February 7, 2006
Accepted on April 17, 2006
Nanoassembly of a Fractal Polymer: A Molecular Sierpinski "Hexagonal Gasket"
George R. Newkome 1*,
Pingshan Wang 2,
Charles N. Moorefield 2,
Tae Joon Cho 2,
Prabhu Mohapatra 2,
Sinan Li 3,
Seok-Ho Hwang 2,
Olena Lukoyanova 4,
Luis Echegoyen 4,
Judith A. Palagallo 5,
Violeta Iancu 6,
Saw-Wai Hla 6
1 Department of Polymer Science; Department of Chemistry, The University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325-4717, USA.
2 Department of Polymer Science, The University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325-4717, USA.
3 Department of Polymer Engineering, The University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325-4717, USA.
4 Department of Chemistry, Clemson University,Clemson, SC 29634, USA.
5 Department of Theoretical and Applied Mathematics, The University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325-4717, USA.
6 Department of Physics and Astronomy, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701, USA.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
George R. Newkome , E-mail: newkome{at}uakron.edu
Mathematics and art converge in the fractal forms that also abound in nature. Here we use molecular self-assembly to create a synthetic, nanometer-scale Sierpinski hexagonal gasket. This non-dendritic, perfectly self-similar fractal macromolecule is comprised of bisterpyridine building blocks that are bound together by coordination to 36 Ru and 6 Fe ions to form a nearly planar array of increasingly larger hexagons around a hollow center.
