Temperature controlled ion-selective self-assembling membranes based on wedge-shaped dendrons of 3,4,5-tris(alkyloxy)benzenesulfonic acid

The project is aimed at the creation of 2D and 3D smart nanomaterials for advanced photonics and bioengineering, based on the novel self-assembling wedge-shaped derivatives of 2,3,4- and 3,4,5-tris(alkyloxy) benzenesulfonic acid. It was shown by us that a number of such compounds are characterized by the transition from 2D ordered to 2D disordered columnar mesophase. Cylinders of the former onecontain a coaxial ion-selective channel of a few angstroms wide, while in the disordered columnar mesophase the channel is shut. As temperature of order-disorder transition depends in a systematic way of different features of molecule’s chemical structure (length of an aliphatic tail, type of an attached counterion and focal point of its attachment), we are in a way for the creation of temperature-controlled, highly selective ion membrane. Analysis of the new class of self-assembling materials will serve as the basis for the establishment of general laws of formation of functional structure.