Self-assembly of dendron rodcoil molecules into nanoribbons.

One of the expectations in science is the discovery of materials with surprising properties or functionality based on designed molecules that self-order or fold. The focus on self-assembly throughout the 90s has generated very useful knowledge toward this expectation and many prospects are on the horizon.1-6 Learning how to control the dimensionality and shape of selfassembled structures through molecular design remains a challenge. We report here on the self-assembly of molecules 1 which we refer to as dendron rodcoils (DRC) because of their blocked covalent architecture consisting of coil-like, rodlike, and dendritic segments. These molecules are synthesized in 15 steps with an