Since the concept of “Janus grains” was introduced by de Gennes in his Nobel lecture, tremendous attention has been paid on their symmetry-breaking structures, self-assembly behaviors, and unique properties. In this work, a series of molecular Janus particles based on functionalized fullerene with precisely-defined structures were synthesized. These Janus particles exhibit intriguing self-assembling behaviors in solution. Fully hydrophilic, carboxylic acid functionalized fullerenes (AC60) behave as hydrophilic macroions in polar solvents by showing strong attractions with each other mediated from their counterions and consequently self-assembling into single-layer, hollow, spherical blackberry-type structures in solvents with moderate polarity. After breaking symmetry, the amphiphilic Janus particles composed of AC60 tethered by one (AC60-C60) or two (AC60-2C60) hydrophobic C60 yielded various micellar morphologies including spheres, cylinders and vesicles, depending on the molecular architectures and solvent polarity. Furthermore, uniquely hierarchical structures such as helical structures can be formed by the assembly of Janus particles deriving from conjugates of positively and negatively charged C60.

Molecular Janus particles based on functionalized fullerenes: Precise synthesis and assembly in solution

250th National Meeting (2015)

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