Part I: Self-Assembling Dendrimers Using the Dda-Aad Hydrogen Bonding Motif. Part II: Supramolecular Discotic Liquid Crystals Through Hydrogen Bond Mediated Self-Assembly

Abstract

In part II, the ability of this heterocyclic unit to generate a self-assembled structure in bulk was tested by attachment of a 3,4,5-tris-dodecyloxybenzyl group to the 8-amino group and evaluating the mesomorphic properties of the resulting derivative. Cumulative solution studies by 1H NMR, SEC and DLS indicate the formation of a hydrogen bonded cyclic hexamer in apolar solvents. The studies by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), polarized light microscopy (PLM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) indicate that the hexameric disks can stack in bulk to form thermotropic columnar mesophases. The mesophases exist across a large temperature range (>248°C).