Supramolecular self-assembly represents the key process for the spontaneous bottom-up construction of nanoarchitectures and, as such, is increasingly exploited for the development of functional, responsive, and self-healing (bio)materials with enhanced physical and chemical properties. To go one step further, and in order to build �smart� materials, it will be of first significance to couple environmental signaling events with the formation of self-assemblies that will be able, in turn, to transport this initial information in space and time. Here we will show that chemically-tailored triarylamine units, when exposed to simple visible light irradiation, produce cationic radicals that subsequently generate various hierarchical self-assembled structures, going from nanospheres to nanowires. We will also report on the direct self-assembly of such supramolecular organic nanowires in lateral electronic devices. Using a combination of light and electric field, these purely organic self-assemblies are able to precisely interconnect nanometer-sized metallic electrodes with a high efficiency.

Triarylamine units: A modular scaffold for light-triggered self-assembly and its use as metallic interconnects

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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