2009 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Construction of Fullerene-like Extra Large Carbon Cages in a Supramolecular Fashion and Its Application

Research Project

Project/Area Number	20750099
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Functional materials chemistry
Research Institution	National Institute for Materials Science
Principal Investigator	TASHIRO Kentaro National Institute for Materials Science, 国際ナノアーキテクトニクス研究拠点, MANA研究者 (40332598)
Project Period (FY)	2008 – 2009
Keywords	コラニュレン / 金ナノパーティクル / 自己組織化 / 液晶
Research Abstract	Assembly of corannulene with a bowl shaped nonplanar π-conjugated system was investigated by using its various derivatives bearing multiple peripheral substituents. Gold nanoparticles wrapped with a carbon cage composed of corannulene moieties were constructed by using the attractive multivalent interaction between gold and multiple thioether parts in the peripheral substituents of the corannulene core. SHG signals of such corannulene-attached gold nanoparticles were ~8 times more intense than those of alkanethiol modified gold nanoparticles of the same size. Inspired by the accidental observation that a newly synthesized corannulene derivative shows a mesomorphic behavior, design of the first example of liquid crystalline corannulene as well as its macroscopic alignment in response to the application of electric field was also achieved. These findings contribute the development of materials science of corannulene.