Thermotropic and lyotropic liquid crystalline phases of rigid aromatic amphiphiles

Abstract

Rodlike amphiphilic molecules that contain exclusively aromatic building-blocks and no flexible alkyl chains have been synthesized and their mesomorphic properties investigated. These novel compounds bear diol head groups of different size (2,3-dihydroxypropyloxy or 5,6-dihydroxy-3-oxahexyloxy groups) at one end of a biphenyl unit, various aromatic segments (benzyloxy, 4-, 3-, or 2-methylbenzyloxy, phenoxy groups) at the other, and additional methyl substituents in different positions. They were synthesized by using Suzuki cross-coupling reactions as the key steps. Their thermotropic mesomorphism was investigated by means of polarized light optical microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, and, for enantiotropic phases, by X-ray scattering. The liquid crystallinity of this class of compounds is influenced by protic solvents, such as water and glycerol. Dependent on the temperature and the solvent content, different SA phases were found. Several mesophases resulting from the frustration of these layer structures (e.g., different columnar phases, optical isotropic mesophases, and nematic phases) were also present. The smectic phases have different degrees of intercalation (SAd, SA2). The columnar phases are supposed to be ribbon structures that result from the collapse of the smectic layers. They occur in some pure compounds or they are induced upon the addition of protic solvents. The particular phase sequences of the different compounds depend mainly on the position of the methyl substituents at the biphenyl cores and are largely determined by the degree of intercalation of the aromatic cores.