Controlled
self-assembly and rapid disintegration of supramolecular
nanowires is potentially useful for ecology-friendly organic electronics.
Herein, a novel method exploiting the binding between crown-substituted
double-decker lanthanide phthalocyaninates (ML2, M = Lu,
Ce, Tb) and K+ ions is applied for the one-step fabrication
of macroscopically long conductive one-dimensional quasi-metal–organic
frameworks. Their properties are controlled by the size of the lanthanide
ion guiding the assembly through either intra- or intermolecular interactions.
A LuL2 linker with a small interdeck distance yields fully
conjugated intermolecular-bonded K+–LuL2 nanowires with a thickness of 10–50 nm, a length of up to
50 μm, and a conductivity of up to 11.4 S cm–1, the highest among them being reported for phthalocyanine assemblies.
The large size of CeL2 and TbL2 leads to the
formation of mixed intra- and intermolecular K+–ML2 phases with poor electric properties. A field-assisted method
is developed to deposit aligned conductive K+–LuL2 assemblies on solids. The solid-supported nanowires can be
disintegrated into starting components in a good aprotic solvent for
further recycling.