Crystal Engineering of Tetrahedral `Nano Molecules' Constructed by POSS Cages

Functional hybrid materials provide us a powerful approach to acquire novel hierarchical structures and exceptional properties. Designed nanoparticle building blocks with specific interactions can self-assemble into targeted ordered structures with intriguing shapes, sizes and functionalities. Classical high symmetric `nano atoms', Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane (POSS) can be utilized to construct `nano molecules' with different symmetry, which can further act as novel nanoparticle building blocks. Very interesting rigid tetrahedral `nano molecules' covalent linking four POSS cages were synthesized. Their close packing structures in crystal were determined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and wide angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD).