Liquid reagents

All solid reagents were purchased from Sigma Aldrich, Johannesburg, South Africa and used without further purification. Liquid reagents (Sigma-Aldrich and Merck, Johannesburg, South Africa) were used, without any further purification unless stated otherwise. For electrochemical experiments, spectrochemical grade THF, or dichloromethane (Sigma-Aldrich) was used and stored under an argon atmosphere. Distilled water was used throughout. 3,6-Bis(dodecyl)phthalonitrile, 2 [3 (link)], and 4,5-bis(dodecyl)phthalonitrile, 5 [22 (link),23 (link)], were synthesised using modified literature procedures (See Supporting Information for details). [N(ⁿBu₄)][B(C₆F₆)₄] was synthesized as described before [21 (link)]. Column chromatography was performed on Kieselgel 60 (Merck, grain size 0.040–0.063 nm) as the stationary phase.

Solid reagents (Sigma-Aldrich, Johannesburg, South Africa, STREM, Newburyport, MA, USA and Merck, Johannesburg, South Africa) were used as received. Liquid reagents (Sigma-Aldrich and Merck) were used without any further purification unless specified otherwise. Solvents were distilled, and water was double distilled. Organic solvents used in this study were dried according to published methods [33 (link)]. Melting points are uncorrected and were determined with a BX 51 microscope (Olympus, Johannesburg, South Africa) equipped with a THMS 600 hot stage (Linkam, Johannesburg, South Africa).