Functional organogelators formed by liquid-crystal carbazole-containing bis-MPA dendrimers

Abstract

Novel functional gelators with a dendritic structure based on flexible bis-MPA dendrons that combine mesogenic and carbazole moieties have been prepared. Both the precursory dendrons and the resulting codendrimers show rich supramolecular chemistry, exhibiting both liquid crystalline phases and gelling properties in several low-polarity organic solvents. The study of the self-assembly processes reveals that non-covalent weak interactions control the formation of the supramolecular gels. Due to the carbazole moieties, these gels show interesting electronic properties with an increased fluorescence emission arising from an aggregation-induced emission enhancement (AIEE) effect and electrochemical behaviour. Oxidative polymerisation has been proven to be effective for fixing the gel structure in thin layers of xerogels deposited on ITO electrodes.