文摘
By means of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), we succeeded for the first time in thequantitative analysis of the intramolecular conformation of a supramolecule, cyclodextrin (CyD) necklace,driven by hydrogen bonding. Contrary to the current model, based on macroscopic analyses, which indicatesthat all CyDs are arranged in head-to-head or tail-to-tail (secondary-secondary or primary-primary hydrogenbonding) conformation, about 20% head-to-tail (primary-secondary hydrogen bonding) conformation wasfound to exist in the molecule. In addition, comparing the STM results with the theoretical model of thenecklace formation, the formation ratio of the tail-to-tail and head-to-tail conformations due to the strengthdifference between primary-primary and primary-secondary hydrogen bonds of CyDs was directly obtained,for the first time, to be 2:1.