Self-curl and self-assembly of boric acid clusters

The self-curling and self-assembling phenomena of boric acid clusters were reported in this Letter employing the computer-aided molecular design approach. Both phenomena are driven by the tendency of the formation of O–H⋯O hydrogen bonds. The resulting structures take the forms of petal, boat, bowl, cage or tube, which makes boric acid clusters behave most like the well-studied carbon clusters.