Hierarchical Self-Organization of Perylene Bisimide–Melamine Assemblies to Fluorescent Mesoscopic Superstructures

A series of three perylene tetracarboxylic acid bisimide dyes 3a-c bearing phenoxy substituents at the four bay positions of the perylene core were synthesized and their complexation behavior to complementary ditopic dialkyl melamines 8a-c was investigated. Binding constants and Gibbs binding energies for the hydrogen bonds between the imide and the complementary melamine moiety have been determined in several solvents by NMR and UV/Vis titration experiments with monotopic model compounds 5 and 9. The effects of the solvent polarity and specific solvent-solute interactions on the degree of polymerization of (3 x 8)n are discussed, and a general formula to estimate the chain length of [AA-BB…