Processable soft conducting fibers of self-assembled (2,5-diphenyl-2H-1,2,3-triazole-4-carbonyl)-l-phenylalaninate

Abstract

This study reports an efficient synthetic approach towards processable soft conducting nanowires of 2,5-diphenyl-2H-1,2,3-triazole-4-carbonyl appended to L-phenylalanine (1). Using diverse experimental techniques, we demonstrate that, compared to EtOH or EtOH/water, ACN and ACN/water solution produced better hexagonal nanowires of compound 1. The hexagonal nanowires exhibit excellent electron-transfer properties. The ACN or ACN/water solution assembly is mainly governed by hydrogen bonding and π-stacking interactions, favoring -sheet formation and leading to long tubes. The tubes grown in ACN/water are more conducting than the tubes from pure ACN. The tubes grown in ACN/water can carry 100 nA current upon application of a voltage of 0.56 V. The ideal chemical arrangement maximizes the electronic coupling between the π–π overlapping triazole molecules, and produces a band gap of 3.70 eV, as determined by a Tauc plot utilizing UV-visible absorption data.