Chain length dependent alkane/β-cyclodextrin nonamphiphilic supramolecular building blocks

Abstract

In this work we report the chain length dependent behavior of the nonamphiphilic supramolecular building blocks based on the host–guest inclusion complexes of alkanes and β-cyclodextrins (β-CD). ¹H NMR, ESI-MS, and SAXS measurements verified that upon increasing the chain length of alkanes, the building blocks for vesicle formation changed from channel type 2alkane@2β-CD via channel type alkane@2β-CD to non-channel type 2alkane@2β-CD. FT-IR and TGA experiments indicated that hydrogen bonding is the extensive driving force for vesicle formation. It revealed that water molecules are involved in vesicle formation in the form of structural water. Upon changing the chain length, the average number of water molecules associated with per building block is about 16–21, depending on the chain length.