Hexabenzocoronene@Laponite Ionic Cage: a Secondary Nanoassembly as Efficient Elastic Ion Platform

Abstract

Ion platform is a specific material featuring uneven charge distribution for intercalating and exchanging ions, but usually needs to make the better compromise between ion loading and transport in practice. So, we adopted a novel strategy of supramolecular secondary self-assembly to construct an elastic cage-like ion platform comprising disc-like anthracenedecorated Laponite nanoclays (LAPA) and discotic supramolecular conjugated hexabenzocoronene (HBC). Based on the flexible van der Waals force and π-π conjugation effect, the resulting multilayer HBC@LAPA nanoassembly enabled Laponite to be separated for reducing charge self-neutralization, and further intensified the overall ionic performances with excellent charge loading (-25.63 mV, 35 times) and the mobility shift ((2.00 (μ s -1 )/ (V cm -1 )), 40 times). In particular, we integrated the HBC@LAPA nanoassemblies as ion cage and cross-linking point into the polymeric gel system, causing resistance decrement of two orders of magnitude. This cage-like supramolecular nanoassembly with high and unidirectional ionic conductivity is of great significance for ion platform in battery, sensing, sieving, and ionic adsorption.