In the presence of the sodium salt of a bulky anion, which allows the solubility of Na(+) in low polarity solvents, various tetra(4-pyridyl)porphyrin derivatives can spontaneously self-assemble from CH(2)Cl(2) into supramolecular nanostructures exhibiting a long-range order, through the coordination of Na(+) ions by the pyridyl moieties at the macrocycle periphery.
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