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Nanosegregated Chiral Materials with Self‐Assembled Hierarchical Mesophases: Effect of Thermotropic and Photoinduced Polymorphism in Rodlike Molecules
Author(s) -
Jeon SungWook,
Kim DaeYoon,
Araoka Fumito,
Jeong KwangUn,
Choi SukWon
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
chemistry – a european journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.687
H-Index - 242
eISSN - 1521-3765
pISSN - 0947-6539
DOI - 10.1002/chem.201703778
Subject(s) - supramolecular chirality , mesophase , thermotropic crystal , chirality (physics) , liquid crystal , supramolecular chemistry , molecule , materials science , phase (matter) , crystallography , circular dichroism , phase transition , chemistry , chemical physics , liquid crystalline , organic chemistry , chiral symmetry , optoelectronics , physics , quantum mechanics , nambu–jona lasinio model , quark
Supramolecular chirality in a binary mixture of achiral bent‐core (BC) and achiral rodlike mesogens was observed. Three different nanosegregated mesophases were determined in the binary system, and meaningful changes in circular dichroism (CD) were detected near the phase‐transition temperatures of the rodlike mesogens. The highest CD intensity in the binary system was noted in the nanosegregated mesophase, in which the BC mesogens were in the helical nanofilament (HNF) phase and the rodlike mesogens were in the smectic A phase. The supramolecular chirality in the binary mixture was attributed to the self‐assembled hierarchical chiral superstructures. Based on the experimental results, plausible scenarios for the chiral superstructures of the rodlike molecules embedded in the HNF networks are suggested. In addition, a system comprising BC and rodlike molecules doped with a photoresponsive compound exhibited remarkable photoswitching of CD intensity. According to the isothermal photoinduced phase transition of the embedded molecules in BC molecular HNFs, the observed CD intensities can be dynamically and reversibly modulated. Such a material with easily controllable functionality is of considerable interest in the field of materials science.