화학공학소재연구정보센터
Journal of Polymer Science Part A: Polymer Chemistry, Vol.57, No.3, 342-351, 2019
Columnar liquid crystalline assembly of a U-shaped molecular scaffold stabilized by covalent or noncovalent incorporation of aromatic molecules
We report on our serendipitous finding of the anomalous behavior of a novel liquid crystalline (LC) molecule U-H/H, containing a U-shaped handle. While U-H/H itself shows a bicontinuous cubic (Cub(bi)) phase, U-H/H in the presence of pyrene molecules as an external guest forms a hexagonal columnar (Col(h)) phase without phase separation. Interestingly, even when the pyrene molecules were covalently attached to U-H/H (U-Py/Py), the molecule exhibited a Col(h) phase, with a similar columnar geometry to that of U-H/H mixed with pyrene molecules (1-4 equiv.). This result means that no matter how the pyrene moieties are incorporated in the LC system, the resultant material exhibited a similar molecular assembly with a columnar geometry. This finding is interesting because U-H/H and pyrene molecules do not seem to have specific interactions or shape complementarity to form a columnar assembly, as in the case of U-Py/Py. (c) 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2019, 57, 342-351