Progress in self-assemblies of macrocycles at the liquid/solid interface.

ABSTRACT

Macrocyclic self-assemblies have gained great interest for diversified structures and potential applications, such as catalysis, magnetism, photovoltaic devices, organic light-emitting diodes. Macrocycles can present regular assembly systems at the liquid/solid interface due to theπ-conjugated structures. Furthermore, suitable guest molecules can be selected for constructing multi-component supramolecular co-assemblies. This review mainly summarizes macrocyclic self-assembly structures with different shapes in recent years. All of the studies are completed with the assistance of scanning tunneling microscope at the liquid/solid interface.