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Hydrogen bonding; molecular clusters; cyanuric acid; self-assembly; symmetry.

In this article, the self-assembly of cyanuric acid (CA) molecules into nano-structures is examined. Equilibrium geometry of CA is planar and it belongs to the D_3h point group. It is shown that CA clusters form three dimensional bowls and balls. Cyclic pentamer (5-bowl) is the basic motif responsible for these non-planar geometries. It is also shown that the cyclic hexamer based clusters can be non-planar if they contain a 5-bowl. A unified criterion for the formation of bowls and balls from basic molecular building blocks emerges from this study. The role of symmetry in supramolecular self-assembly is also clearly evident from the present study.

M ELANGO^{1 2} V SUBRAMANIAN¹ N SATHYAMURTHY^{3 4}

1. Chemical Laboratory, CSIR-Central Leather Research Institute, Adyar, Chennai 600 020, India
2. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA
3. Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Mohali, Sector 81, SAS Nagar, Manauli P.O. 140306, India
4. Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore 560 064, India

Published

5 July 2017

Manuscript received

5 December 2016

Manuscript revised

2 March 2017

Accepted

3 March 2017