Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 1 December 2006:
Vol. 314. no. 5804, pp. 1433 - 1436
DOI: 10.1126/science.1133004
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Macroscopic Hierarchical Surface Patterning of Porphyrin Trimers via Self-Assembly and Dewetting

Richard van Hameren,1 Peter Schön,1 Arend M. van Buul,1 Johan Hoogboom,2 Sergiy V. Lazarenko,1 Jan W. Gerritsen,1 Hans Engelkamp,1 Peter C. M. Christianen,1 Hans A. Heus,1 Jan C. Maan,1 Theo Rasing,1 Sylvia Speller,1 Alan E. Rowan,1 Johannes A. A. W. Elemans,1* Roeland J. M. Nolte1

The use of bottom-up approaches to construct patterned surfaces for technological applications is appealing, but to date is applicable to only relatively small areas (~10 square micrometers). We constructed highly periodic patterns at macroscopic length scales, in the range of square millimeters, by combining self-assembly of disk-like porphyrin dyes with physical dewetting phenomena. The patterns consisted of equidistant 5-nanometer-wide lines spaced 0.5 to 1 micrometers apart, forming single porphyrin stacks containing millions of molecules, and were formed spontaneously upon drop-casting a solution of the molecules onto a mica surface. On glass, thicker lines are formed, which can be used to align liquid crystals in large domains of square millimeter size.

1 Institute for Molecules and Materials, Radboud University Nijmegen, Toernooiveld 1, 6525 ED, Nijmegen, Netherlands.
2 Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: j.elemans{at}science.ru.nl

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
The development of self-assembled liquid crystal display alignment layers.
J. Hoogboom, J. A.A.W Elemans, A. E Rowan, T. H.M Rasing, and R. J.M Nolte (2007)
Phil Trans R Soc A 365, 1553-1576
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)