A non-symmetric room-temperature tristriazolotriazine liquid crystal

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Tristriazolotriazine (TTT) has emerged as an easily accessible electron-deficient heterocyclic core for discotic liquid crystals (LCs). Materials that are liquid-crystalline at room temperature, i.e., do not crystallize in ambient conditions, are of particular interest when the LC state is prone to offer advantages in optoelectronic devices, e.g., for anisotropic charge or exciton transport, or anisotropic light emission. However, there has been no report of non-symmetric TTT LCs, i.e., with unequal arms. Here, we report two non-symmetric compounds derived from the TTT core. Their non-symmetry, combined with a high number of peripheral alkyl chains, is found to promote Colh mesomorphism over a broad temperature range including room temperature. The non-symmetry also induces an increase in the emission quantum yield, compared to symmetric analogs.