Issue 23, 2020

Spontaneous mirror symmetry breaking in benzil-based soft crystalline, cubic liquid crystalline and isotropic liquid phases

Abstract

Benzil (diphenylethane-1,2-dione), which is a long known example for an achiral molecule crystallizing in a chiral space group, can also show mirror symmetry breaking in the fluid state if it is suitably functionalized. For some of the new benzil derivatives even three different subsequent mirror symmetry broken soft matter states with a chiral conglomerate structure can be observed. One is an isotropic liquid, the second one a cubic liquid crystal with a complex network structure and the third is a soft crystalline solid. Chirality develops by helical self-assembly combined with dynamic network formation, thus allowing macroscopic chirality synchronization. These achiral molecules, combining a transiently chiral bent core with multiple alkyl chains, provide a unique link between the mirror symmetry breaking phenomena observed for polycatenar and bent-core mesogens. The homogeneously chiral networks are of interest for application as chiral materials, and as templates for chiral recognition, separation and enantioselective catalysis.

Graphical abstract: Spontaneous mirror symmetry breaking in benzil-based soft crystalline, cubic liquid crystalline and isotropic liquid phases

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
08 3 2020
Accepted
29 4 2020
First published
30 4 2020
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Chem. Sci., 2020,11, 5902-5908

Spontaneous mirror symmetry breaking in benzil-based soft crystalline, cubic liquid crystalline and isotropic liquid phases

T. Reppe, S. Poppe, X. Cai, Y. Cao, F. Liu and C. Tschierske, Chem. Sci., 2020, 11, 5902 DOI: 10.1039/D0SC01396J

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