Two concepts have been developed for the design of [60]fullerene-containing thermotropic liquid crystals, namely, the covalent and non-covalent concepts. In the covalent approach, C60 was functionalized with liquid-crystalline addends (malonate and aldehyde derivatives) by applying either the Bingel reaction or the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction. In the non-covalent approach, a liquid-crystalline inclusion complex was obtained from mesomorphic cyclotriveratrylene (CTV) derivatives and C60. All of the covalent C60 derivatives showed smectic A phases. In one case, an additional nematic phase was detected. The [C60⊂(CTV)2] complex gave rise to nematic-like and cubic phases. The covalent and non-covalent approaches demonstrate the various possibilities for C60 to give rise to mesomorphic materials.
You have access to this article
Please wait while we load your content...
Something went wrong. Try again?