Issue 7, 2003

Columnar liquid crystals from wedge-shaped tetrahedral copper(i) complexes

Abstract

Very stable copper(I) complexes were engineered from pyridine ligands bearing on one side an iminophenyl fragment and on the other a pivotal methyl group. The phenyl group was substituted in the para position either by a methoxy group or by a phenyl ester group grafted with three paraffin chains (n = 8, 12, 16). The methoxy complex in the crystalline state was characterized by X-ray diffraction. Its molecular structure was found to correspond to a distorted tetrahedral arrangement round the copper(I) metal centre. The long-chain complexes near room temperature were found to produce columnar liquid crystals of hexagonal symmetry. The columns were found to result from the aggregation of the wedge-shaped molecules round the columnar axis with the metal-containing iminopicoline ligands crowded together in the centre and the alkyl chains pointing outwards with a disordered conformation. The degree of molecular aggregation, around 7, was found to decrease significantly on heating.

Graphical abstract: Columnar liquid crystals from wedge-shaped tetrahedral copper(i) complexes

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
20 Feb 2003
Accepted
16 Apr 2003
First published
14 May 2003

J. Mater. Chem., 2003,13, 1533-1539

Columnar liquid crystals from wedge-shaped tetrahedral copper(I) complexes

L. Douce, T. Hung Diep, R. Ziessel, A. Skoulios and M. Césario, J. Mater. Chem., 2003, 13, 1533 DOI: 10.1039/B302038J

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