Expedient fabrication of well-defined nanofibres from a macrocycle molecule: solution-controlled self-assembly

In this paper an expedient fabrication of uniform nanofibres from a planar arylene-ethynylene tetracycle molecule is reported. The long-range one-dimensional molecular arrangement, which is mainly due to the favourable pi-pi stacking between the planar shape-persistent molecules, is conducive to enhancement of the exciton migration along the long axis of nanofibres. Such extended exciton migration allows amplification of the fluorescence quenching of the nanofibre by surface-adsorbed chemical reagents, making it possible to construct sensory films consisting of an entangled mesh of the nanofibres, which possess a high sensing efficacy and fast response in vapour detection of explosives.