Investigation and control of metallogel formation for the deposition of supramolecular nanotubes of single-chain magnets

Abstract

Metallogels are versatile and intriguing objects that can be used as media for the deposition of extended molecular architectures on surfaces. In this work, we investigate the thermodynamic and kinetics conditions that induce robust metallogel formation from supramolecular nanotubes of single-chain magnets (SCM). These latter are made of woven chains that alternate Tb and nitronyl-nitroxide radical building blocks. By tailoring the size of the alkyl chain grafted on the radical (NITPhOCn, with n = 6, 10, or 18) we show that long alkyl chains induce delicate gelation conditions but provide gels with improved stability against crystallization and enhanced deposition ability while preserving the overall SCM behaviour of the molecular nanotubes.