Journal
LIQUID CRYSTALS
Volume 37, Issue 12, Pages 1587-1599Publisher
TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
DOI: 10.1080/02678292.2010.521859
Keywords
gemini imidazolium salts; thermotropic ionic liquid crystals; synthesis of imidazole derivatives; nanostructured materials; smectic phases
Funding
- US Army Research Office [AB07CBT010]
- Defense Threat Reduction Agency [HDTRA1-08-1-0028]
- National Science Foundation [DMR-0552399, CBET-08054553]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Thermotropic ionic liquid crystals (LCs) are useful for a number of applications such as anisotropic ion transport and as organised reaction media/solvents because of their ordered fluid properties and intrinsic charge units. A large number of different ionic LC architectures are known, but only a handful of examples of gemini (i.e. paired or dimeric) ionic LCs have been prepared and studied. In this work, a series of 20 new symmetric, imidazolium-based, gemini cationic LCs containing two bridged imidazolium cations and two pendant alkyl chains was synthesised, and the thermotropic LC behaviours were characterised. The imidazolium unit provides a highly tunable and modular platform for the design and synthesis of gemini cationic LCs which offers excellent structure control. As expected, the thermotropic LC properties of these new amphilphilic, gemini ionic LCs were found to be strongly influenced by the length of the spacer between the imidazolium units, the length of the pendant alkyl tails, and the nature of the anion. Smectic A (SmA) thermotropic LC phases were observed in more than half of the gemini imidazolium LC systems studied.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available