Abstract
A bicontinuous cubic (Cubbi) liquid crystalline (LC) phase consisting of three dimensional (3D) conducting networks is a promising structural platform for ion-conductors. For practical applications using this fascinating LC structure, it is necessary to suppress crystallization at room temperature (RT). Herein, we report the Cubbi structure at RT and the morphology–dependent conduction behavior in ionic samples of a non-crystallizable dendritic amphiphile. In the molecular design, branched alkyl chains were used as an ionophobic part instead of crystallizable linear alkyl chains. Two ionic samples with Cubbi and hexagonal columnar (Colhex) LC phases at RT were prepared by adding different amounts of lithium salt to the amphiphile. Impedance analysis demonstrated that the Cubbi phase contributed to the faster ion-conduction to a larger extent than the Colhex phase due to the 3D ionic networks of the Cubbi phase. In addition, the temperature–dependent impedance and electric modulus data provided information regarding the phase transition from microphase-separated phase to molecularly mixed liquid phase.
Highlights
Liquid crystalline (LC) compounds composed of ionophilic and ionophobic blocks can serve as a promising platform for organic solvent-free electrolyte materials
liquid crystalline (LC) materials can realize the flexibility of ionophilic coils to achieve comparable properties to the liquid (Liq) phase, which supports high ionic conductivity
A dendritic amphiphile consisting of branched alkyl peripheries and TEO coils was designed and synthesized
Summary
Liquid crystalline (LC) compounds composed of ionophilic and ionophobic blocks can serve as a promising platform for organic solvent-free electrolyte materials. This is attributed to the unique physical properties of LC materials as they exhibit segmental mobility at the molecular level and segregation at the supramolecular level [1,2]. LC materials can realize the flexibility of ionophilic coils to achieve comparable properties to the liquid (Liq) phase, which supports high ionic conductivity. To enhance the ion-conducting performance of LC electrolytes, engineering of structural features are important. Diverse LC morphologies have been used as electrolytes, including micellar cubic [3], columnar [4,5,6,7,8], lamellar (Lam) [9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16], and bicontinuous cubic (Cubbi ) [17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24] structures
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