Influence of the Molecular Structure and Morphology of Self‐Assembled 1,3,5‐Benzenetrisamide Nanofibers on their Mechanical Properties

Abstract

The influence of molecular structure on the mechanical properties of self-assembled 1,3,5-benzenetrisamide nanofibers is investigated. Three compounds with different amide connectivity and different alkyl substituents are compared. All the trisamides form well-defined fibers and exhibit significant differences in diameters of up to one order of magnitude. Using nanomechanical bending experiments, the rigidity of the nanofibers shows a difference of up to three orders of magnitude. Calculation of Young's modulus reveals that these differences are a size effect and that the moduli of all systems are similar and in the lower GPa range. This demonstrates that variation of the molecular structure allows changing of the fibers' morphology, whereas it has a minor influence on their modulus. Consequently, the stiffness of the self-assembled nanofibers can be tuned over a wide range--a crucial property for applications as versatile nano- and micromechanical components.

Supramolecular Nanofiber Webs in Nonwoven Scaffolds as Potential Filter Media

“…Recently, we have shown by atomic force microscopy (AFM) force mapping methodology that single self‐assembled BTA‐nanofibers feature a remarkable mechanical stability with Young's moduli in the low GPa range,39, 40 demonstrating that supramolecular nanofibers can withstand certain mechanical stress. These findings encouraged us to explore the in situ formation of supramolecular nanofiber webs in nonwoven scaffolds with the emphasis to prepare sufficiently stable polymer‐microfiber/supramolecular‐nanofiber composites, also in view of filter applications.…”

Tuning the Ferroelectric Properties of Trialkylbenzene‐1,3,5‐tricarboxamide (BTA)

“…Initially BTA has attracted a lot of interest due to structure-related strong intermolecular interaction and the resultant formation of supramolecular polymers in solution, the ability to create gels as well as rigid nanofibers. [31][32][33][34] The ferroelectric behavior, however, is a relatively new finding. [9,35] Fitié et al were first to probe BTA homologues with 18, 10, and 6 carbons-long alkyl chain (BTA-C18, BTA-C10, and BTA-C6).…”

Influence of different beta-nucleating agents on the morphology of isotactic polypropylene and their toughening effectiveness

“…The synthesis and characterization were described in detail elsewhere [28e31]. They have been used as nucleation agents for iPP [24] and PVDF [32] and as supramolecular nanofibers [33,34]. As a reference alpha-nucleating agent, the commercially available nucleation agent, Irgaclear XT386 (alpha NA; supplier: BASF SE) and as a reference beta-nucleating agent (beta Ref), the commercially available nucleating agent, NJStar NU-100 (N,N-dicyclohexyl-2,6-naphthalene dicarboxamide, supplier: New Japan Chemical Co) were used as received.…”