Issue 15, 2022

Engineering mesophase stability and structure via incorporation of cyclic terminal groups

Abstract

We report on the characterisation of a number of liquid–crystalline materials featuring cyclic terminal groups, which lead to significant enhancements in the temperature range of the mesomorphic state. Materials with only short terminal chains are able to support lamellar mesophase formation by appending a large terminal cyclic unit at the end of a short spacer composed of methylene units. X-ray scattering experiments reveal that the layer spacings of the lamellar smectic phase are significantly larger when a cyclic end-group is present than for equivalent linear unsubstituted materials, but there is no effect on orientational order. Fully atomistic molecular dynamics simulations faithfully reproduce experimental layer spacings and orientational order parameters, and indicate that the cyclic terminal units spontaneously segregate into diffuse sub-layers and thus cause the increased layer spacing. This shape segregation predicted by molecular dynamics simulations is observed in the crystalline solid state by X-ray diffraction.

Graphical abstract: Engineering mesophase stability and structure via incorporation of cyclic terminal groups

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
13 dez 2021
Accepted
16 fev 2022
First published
21 mar 2022
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

J. Mater. Chem. C, 2022,10, 5934-5943

Engineering mesophase stability and structure via incorporation of cyclic terminal groups

R. J. Mandle, L. C. Abbott, L. Fritsch, R. R. Parker, S. Hart, A. C. Whitwood, S. J. Cowling, J. N. Moore and J. W. Goodby, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2022, 10, 5934 DOI: 10.1039/D1TC05954H

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