Mesogenic origami – four-armed, star-shaped mesogens as precursors for functional liquid crystal materials

ABSTRACT

A series of symmetrical tetraesters with a tetrahydroxybenzene core, semi-flexible oligobenzoate arms and one to three peripheral aliphatic chains per arm have been synthesised to study the influence of space-filling and nanosegregation in the mesophases. All compounds were comprehensively investigated by polarised optical microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry and X-ray scattering techniques. Modelling based on this data revealed that the competition of space-filling and nanosegregation furnishes a number of columnar and lamellar phases. Various folded molecular structures are the basic mesogenic building blocks. In contrast to earlier predictions, the tetraesters fold to lath-, cross-, cone- and bowl-like conformers depending on the type of the mesophase.

Graphical Abstract

KEYWORDS:

• Liquid crystal
• oligobenzoate
• X-ray scattering
• star-shaped
• folding

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

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