Boronic ester Sierpinski triangle fractals: from precursor design to on-surface synthesis and self-assembling superstructures.

ABSTRACT

Herein, we designed and synthesized a precursor with a three-fold node and successfully constructed covalent Sierpinski triangle (ST) fractals with boronic ester linkages both at the liquid/solid interface at room temperature and by thermal annealing in a water atmosphere under ambient conditions. Remarkably, large-scale ordered superstructures of covalent STs are constructed by thermal annealing, which paves the way for property investigation of STs.