Spontaneous Fabrication of Microscopic Arrays of Rotaxane Structures with Sub-Micrometer Lengthscales

We show the spontaneous fabrication of organized structures with multiple lengthscales from a solution of rotaxanes cast onto a holey mesh in contact with a substrate. The mesh controls the spatial distribution of deposited material on a micrometer scale. The borders around a hole in the mesh pin the solution, and dewetting within the hole generates droplets of rotaxane with nanometer length scale. The droplet size is controlled by the radial concentration profile.