Morphology-controlled growth of perylene derivative induced by double-hydrophilic block copolymers

Controlled growth of technically relevant perylene derivative 3, 4, 9, 10-perylenetetracarboxylic acid potassium salt (PTCAPS), with tuneable morpologies, has been successfully realized by a recrystallization method using a double-hydrophilic block copolymer poly (ethylene glycol)-block poly (ethyleneimine) (PEG-b-PEI) as the structure directing agent. The {001} faces of PTCAPS are most polar and adsorb the oppositively charged polymer additive PEG-b-PEI well by electrostatic attraction. By simply adjusting the PEG-b-PEI concentration, systematic morphogenesis of PTCAPS from plates to microparticles composed of various plates splaying outwards could be realized. Furthermore, the variation of pH value of the recrystallization solution could induce the change of the interaction strength between PEG-b-PEI additive and PTCAPS and thus modify the morphology of PTCAPS from microparticles composed of various plates to ultralong microbelts.