Chemistry - A European Journal
Chemistry - A European Journal
5 years ago

Formation of a Cubic Liquid Crystalline Nanostructure with π-Conjugated Fluorinated Rods on the Gyroid Minimal Surface

Formation of a Cubic Liquid Crystalline Nanostructure with π-Conjugated Fluorinated Rods on the Gyroid Minimal Surface
Carsten Tschierske, Feng Liu, Marco Poppe, Silvio Poppe, Changlong Chen
Bicontinuous cubic phases are of significant importance for numerous applications, for example, for the crystallization of membrane proteins, as photonic materials and as templates for porous silica. A new variant of bicontinuous cubic liquid crystalline phase with Ia3‾ d lattice is reported herein for X-shaped bolapolyphiles. It was shown that in this class of compounds, cubic-phase induction can be achieved by proper aromatic core fluorination; in addition, the first cubic phases having π-conjugated oligo(phenylene ethynylene) rods on the gyroid minimal surface were obtained. These new structures composed of 3D folded layers of parallel arranged π-conjugated rods should allow charge transport in all three dimensions, which is of interest for organic semiconductor applications. The power of fluorination: Tailoring the fluorination pattern modifies the soft self-assembly of oligo(phenylene ethynylene)-based X-shaped polyphiles, leading to the first thermotropic liquid crystalline cubic phase with the π-conjugated rods forming the gyroid minimal surface. The organization of the rods perpendicular to the minimal surface and parallel to each other allows π-stacking interactions in all three dimensions of space (see figure).

Publisher URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/resolve/doi

DOI: 10.1002/chem.201700905

You might also like
Discover & Discuss Important Research

Keeping up-to-date with research can feel impossible, with papers being published faster than you'll ever be able to read them. That's where Researcher comes in: we're simplifying discovery and making important discussions happen. With over 19,000 sources, including peer-reviewed journals, preprints, blogs, universities, podcasts and Live events across 10 research areas, you'll never miss what's important to you. It's like social media, but better. Oh, and we should mention - it's free.

  • Download from Google Play
  • Download from App Store
  • Download from AppInChina

Researcher displays publicly available abstracts and doesn’t host any full article content. If the content is open access, we will direct clicks from the abstracts to the publisher website and display the PDF copy on our platform. Clicks to view the full text will be directed to the publisher website, where only users with subscriptions or access through their institution are able to view the full article.