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Dynamic Covalent Formation of Concave Disulfide Macrocycles Mechanically Interlocked with Single‐Walled Carbon Nanotubes
Author(s) -
Balakrishna Bugga,
Me Arjun,
Cao Kecheng,
Gsänger Sebastian,
Beil Sebastian B.,
Villalva Julia,
Shyshov Oleksandr,
Martin Oliver,
Hirsch Andreas,
Meyer Bernd,
Kaiser Ute,
Guldi Dirk M.,
Delius Max
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/anie.202005081
Subject(s) - carbon nanotube , raman spectroscopy , covalent bond , nanomaterials , materials science , surface modification , disulfide bond , carbon disulfide , nanotechnology , photoluminescence , selectivity , absorption (acoustics) , chemical engineering , chemistry , organic chemistry , optoelectronics , catalysis , composite material , biochemistry , physics , engineering , optics
The formation of discrete macrocycles wrapped around single‐walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) has recently emerged as an appealing strategy to functionalize these carbon nanomaterials and modify their properties. Here, we demonstrate that the reversible disulfide exchange reaction, which proceeds under mild conditions, can install relatively large amounts of mechanically interlocked disulfide macrocycles on the one‐dimensional nanotubes. Size‐selective functionalization of a mixture of SWCNTs of different diameters were observed, presumably arising from error correction and the presence of relatively rigid, curved π‐systems in the key building blocks. A combination of UV/Vis/NIR, Raman, photoluminescence excitation, and transient absorption spectroscopy indicated that the small (6,4)‐SWCNTs were predominantly functionalized by the small macrocycles 1 2 , whereas the larger (6,5)‐SWCNTs were an ideal match for the larger macrocycles 2 2 . This size selectivity, which was rationalized computationally, could prove useful for the purification of nanotube mixtures, since the disulfide macrocycles can be removed quantitatively under mild reductive conditions.